Thermoplastic encapsulation

One of the most important features of LED and integrated circuits is encapsulation. Its main goal is to protect, favour connectivity and dissipate heat.

Currently, injection processes require a very high processing time, due mainly to the curation process of the thermosetting plastic used for encapsulation. Thus, manufacturing time, costs and precision, become the main problems of that technology for growing in an efficient and sustainable way.

Our strength is a brand new industrial injection moulding process performed with thermoplastic that improves costs, speed and performance of the process and add optical efficiency maintaining the protection against external damaging agents.

Automotive lighting engine

The technology embedded thermoplastic lens, together with the experience in optical design, allows applying its potentialities in the field of automotive. This technology has been implemented in the development of a new lighting system for LED lights that has allowed us to reduce its size by around 70% and increases flexibility in the design framework while maintaining the required functionality.

Customizable photonic emitters integrated into a chip using new 3D encapsulation processes (FOTUNECHIP3D) “subsidized by the CDTI”

Development of a new industrial process for the encapsulation of electro-optical devices for distributed broadband information systems.

The encapsulations usually used require relatively high quantities of thermosetting materials, after the molding process and once the encapsulated component is removed from the cavity, they require a curing process, often in an oven for 4-5 h at an elevated temperature.

Under the financing of the RETOS-Collaboration program (RTC-2015-3954-8) of the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, they participate in the project “Desarrollo de un nuevo proceso industrial para el encapsulado de dispositivos electroópticos para sistemas distribuidos de información de amplio ancho de banda (ENCAP)” the National Microelectronics Center (CSIC), the Hybtronics Microsystems company and the CD6 of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, with the main objective of replacing the curing process with a thermoplastic injection molding process.

The main competitive advantage that is expected from this new system are improvements in the field of manufacturing, reducing process times, and in the field of improving final performance, increasing the efficiency of the devices.

Micro-injection machine for Photonic Integrated Circuits encapsulation with optical performance using thermoplastic materials

Integrated circuits (IC), LED’s and Fiber optics devices make the world evolves faster and farther. One of the most important features of IC manufacturing processes is encapsulation. Its main goal is to protect, favour connectivity and dissipate heat, and help in the installation procedures, its importance is one of the highest within the value chain of electronics. Within the whole world of applications of IC, those related to Photonics (PIC) are in an exponential growth thanks to its speed and costs.

Currently, encapsulation of PIC is made through mould injection of thermosetting plastics. Nevertheless, injection processes require a very high processing time, due mainly to the curation process of the thermosetting plastic. Thus, manufacturing time, costs and precision, become the main problems of that technology for growing in an efficient and sustainable way.

Within this project entitled Micro-injection machine for Photonic Integrated Circuits encapsulation with optical performance using thermoplastic materials (PRODUCTE), and under the funding of the program Convocatòria d’Industria del Coneixement for the year 2016, Modalitat B, Producte, of the Agencia de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca, we have developed a brand new methodology for the manufacturing of photonic integrated circuits with embedded optical elements.