A-Laser’s Laser Direct Structuring (LDS) and its Molded Interconnect Devices (MID)-enabling capability improved form and function. While MIDs are found in multiple markets, they are particularly useful in the medical device arena, where marrying integrated circuit traces and molded thermoplastic parts offers tremendous benefit for devices that can deliver more immediate diagnostic results. Applications include hearing aids, blood glucose meters, remote patient monitoring systems, drug delivery systems, disposable catheter interfaces, neurostimulation controllers and Integrated Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) solutions.
MIDs are injection-molded thermoplastic parts that contain integrated circuit traces and will complement designs that would be impossible to achieve with other technologies. The LDS process activates the material to allow conductive traces onto the plastic surface. The metallization process the starts with a Cu bath, after which time application-specific coatings such as Ni, Au, Sn, Sn/Pb, AG, AG/PD and so on, are possible.
In addition to their LDS technology, A-Laser will be highlighting a new capability made possible by the acquisition of a high tech drilling and routing machine. This new machine is extremely accurate in its linear movement and depth control. One of the goals for this machine is to achieve high quality steps for SMT stencils and the ability to route precise PCB pockets for passive and active components. These pockets are required to be very accurate and this is achieved with a precise depth-controlled routing system. The application of this technology goes way beyond SMT Stencils and PCBs—they now have the ability to create 3D features on what normally could only be a 2 dimensional part.
A-Laser
www.a-laser.com
