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Conductive plastics for

electrical and electronic


applications
Plastics have become the material of choice for internals in electronic
components. In these applications designers are looking for thermoplastics
that dissipate charge and provide barriers to electromagnetic energy. So the
challenge is to convert inherently insulating thermoplastic materials to a product
that would provide antistatic or electrostatic dissipative or EMI/RFI shielding or
combination of these properties. Dr Jay Amarasekera of GE Advanced Materials/
LNP explains.

lastics are by nature very good


insulators. This inherent electrical
insulation causes the plastic to
tend to hold electrostatic charges and to
allow electromagnetic/radio frequency
interference (EMI/RFI) to pass through.
Recently, plastic has become the material
of choice for internals in electronic components such as computers and other
consumer products, replacing metals, as
they offer greater design flexibility,
lighter weight, colorability and costeffectiveness. Thus, the challenge is to
convert inherently insulating thermoplastic materials to a product that would
provide
antistatic
or
electrostatic

dissipative or EMI/RFI shielding or a


combination of these properties.
Managing heat is crucial to maintaining the reliability and extending the
life of electronics. A wide range of
choice of cooling solutions is available
for shunting away excess component
heat, including fans, metallic or ceramic
heat sinks, pipes and spreaders. With
increasing demand for miniaturisation
of electronic devices such as laptops,
PDAs and other hand-held devices,
designers are now focusing on innovative thermal management solutions
using design flexible, lightweight thermally conducting plastics.

Figure 1. The conductivity spectrum, showing different surface resistance regions for plastics parts to
be antistatic, ESD or EMI/RFI shielding. Lower resistance means higher electrical conductivity.

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The Electronic Industries Association (EIA) Standard 541 classifies conductive plastics with respect to their
ability to protect against either electrostatic discharge (ESD) or electromagnetic interference/ radio frequency interference (EMI/RFI). Materials with a
measured surface resistivity between
105-1012 ohms/sq. provides adequate
ESD performance, with lower conductivity products acting as antistatic products. Plastics with surface resistivity of
<105 ohm/sq. could be used as EMI/RFI
shielding materials (Figure 1).

Conductive fillers
Plastics can be made conductive, rendering them electrostatic dissipative
or EMI/RFI shielding, by adding conductive fillers or additives or a combination of both. High-aspect ratio fillers
(whose length-to-diameter ratio is
much greater than unity) excel in forming conductive networks at minimum
loadings, preserve properties and keep
surfaces smooth, while being conductive enough to meet specifications.
Commonly used fibrous fillers include
carbon fibres, metal fibres, and metalcoated fibres. Other types of fillers such
as carbon powders and metal flakes
0034-3617/05 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Conductive plastics for electrical and electronic applications

have also been used. Recently, more


emphasis has been on the use of carbon
nanofibres, where with small loading
high conductivities can be achieved sustaining plastic-like properties.
Although a wide variety of conductive fillers are available, the choice of
filler depends on the end-user specifications in the target application. In some
antistatic applications, manufacturers
are looking for clear plastics, and thus
the additive or filler used should match
the refractive index of the polymer
matrix. In applications such as computer chip and hard drive carrier trays,
the original equipment manufacturer
(OEM) is looking for conductive plastics
with low ionic concentrations. Therefore, fillers used should not have leachable ionics and other impurities at minimum levels. Lastly, both conductivity
and processability of these plastics
depend on the manufacturing process
type of extruder used, screw configuration, shear and temperatures employed.
The information presented here will
be focused on the use different surfaceactive chemical agents, fillers such as
carbon fibres, carbon powders, carbon
nanotubes and combination of these
fillers to impart conductivity in plastics
especially in electrical and electronic
applications. Using mixed filler systems,

Figure 3. Effect of different types of fillers (at 10% loading) on PC-ABS resin. Metallic fillers or metal
coated fibres provide higher conductivities with lower filler loadings.

and utilising their interactions/synergism, we were able to tailor the plastic


components to meet specific surface
resistivity range and processing requirements for different applications.

Antistatic plastics
Static electricity is a common phenomenon that all of us have experienced
clinging of hair when brushed and an
electrical shock obtained by touching a
doorknob or metal part. Static electricity
on a surface is generated due to the

Figure 2. Antistatic plastics are widely used in applications where dissipation of static charge is
needed, such as media drive cartridges. (Picture courtesy of Plasmon.)

build-up of charge. This could happen


either by a triboelectric effect rubbing,
sliding, or separating of nonconductive
materials, or by an electrostatic field, created when one charged body induces
charge on a nearby second body. There
are many common processes where
effective static charge dissipation is critical to the devices useful functions. One
example is the copying process. If the
components in the copier are not properly grounded to dissipate charge, paper
jamming occurs. Plastics with antistatic
properties are becoming increasingly
popular in applications such as printer
and copier components, vacuum cleaner
dirt
collecting
cups,
electrostatic
painters, air cleaners, computer internals
and ink-jet printer penholders. Good
antistatic plastics should have higher
static decay rates. Antistatic plastics are
widely used in media drives and in storage devices since these need rapid dissipation of surface charges generated during their operation (Figure 2).
Incorporation of antistatic agents
such as poly(amid-ether-ester) type polymers or organic alkyl sulfonates to the
plastics is one method of achieving the
required static dissipative properties.
These types of polymers act as surfaceactive agents and impart a slight
conductivity that is necessary for plastics

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Conductive plastics for electrical and electronic applications

to perform as antistatic agents. We have


found that the combination of these
types of chemical agents with carbon
fibres may provide a synergetic effect on
electrostatic decay characteristics.

Electrostatic discharge
Electrostatic discharge is a transfer of
electrostatic charges between bodies at
different potentials caused by direct contact induced by an electrostatic field.
Electrostatic dissipation has become an
important issue within the electronics
industry, especially in electronic components such as data storage devices, chip
carriers and computer internals.
Different levels of surface and bulk
connectivity can be achieved with various types of conductive fillers. An
increase in conductive additive correlates with a decrease in electrical resistivity and a critical threshold of fillers is
needed for complete and adequate discharge. Volume resistivities obtained
using some commonly used fillers are
shown in Figure 3.
The changes seen in the resistivity
depend on the conductivity (type) of the
filler used, the degree of dispersion and
distribution, and the polymer system.
The most common fillers used in plastics
to impart electrical conductivity are
carbon powders and carbon fibres.

Although carbon powder products provide an inexpensive solution, for electronic applications these products are
not always attractive since they tend to
slough and deposit carbon on components in contact with the plastic. As a
result, carbon fibres are widely used in
conductive plastics, especially in electrical and electronic applications. Carbon
fibres from different suppliers have different characteristics due the sizing and
coupling agents used during their manufacture. As such, the plastic obtained
with same loading of carbon fibres from
different suppliers shows different conductivity properties. Therefore, the selection of conductive filler type, processing
conditions and resin system used play an
important role in achieving the desired
surface resistance values.
Conductive plastics are widely used
in electronic packaging applications,
such as chip trays and conductive carrier
tapes where IC chips are transported
from manufacturers to assembly plants.
These products require good control of
electrostatic dissipative properties coupled with tighter dimensional tolerances
in pockets where chips are placed.
(Figure 4).
Recently nano-carbon fibres have
become popular since they allow higher
conductivities to be obtained even with

Figure 4. Conductive chip trays use conductive


plastics with conductivity as specified by
JEDEC standards. Chip trays need to be
rigid with no warpage after baking at set
temperatures, usually at 150C.

smaller loadings. For example 3% multiwalled nanotube (MWNT) filled polycarbonate products exhibit the same
conductivity as 15% carbon fibre filled
products (Figure 5), and with single
walled nanotubes (SWNT), the required
loading is less than 1%.
More and more conductive plastics
with MWNTs are now used in electrical/electronic applications since they are
good electrical conductors with lower
filler loading. Furthermore, they do not
slough as carbon powder containing
products do. Although SWNTs give higher conductivities than MWNTs, this technology is still in early stage due to the
challenges in processing of these fibres.
The SWNT has strong van-der-Waal
forces and tends to form ropes. De-roping and good dispersion of individual
tubes in the plastic matrix are critical for
effective conductivities with SWNTs.

EMI shielding

Figure 5. Effect of different types of conductive fibres in polycarbonate. Carbon nanotubes such as
multi-walled nanotubes (MWNT) and single-walled nanotubes provided higher conductivities than
carbon fibres.

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Electromagnetic
interference
(EMI)
shielding is another property of importance in many applications. Electronic
devices operating normally in their
intended environment, without conducting or radiating excessive amounts
of electromagnetic energy, or not being
susceptible to such energy from internal
or external sources, are in the state of
electromagnetic compatibility (EMC).
EMI is radiated or conducted energy that
adversely affects a circuits performance,
and thus disrupts a devices EMC. Many
types of electronic circuits radiate or are

Conductive plastics for electrical and electronic applications

carbon fibre or stainless steel fibres are


widely used. In order to effectively shield
electromagnetic waves the fillers used
should be able to reflect the radiation
from the plastic matrix. For these applications long carbon fibres that can form
an effective network in the polymer
matrix are a better choice than short
fibres, as seen in Figure 6.

Thermally conductive plastics


Figure 6. The shielding effectiveness of PC
with different amounts of carbon fibres.
Plastic pellets made from short carbon fibre
have random orientation of fibres, whereas
long fibre pellets have fibres oriented on the
full pellet length. When parts are moulded,
long carbon fibre products thus give enhanced
shielding effectiveness.

susceptible to EMI and must be shielded


to ensure proper performance.
EMI shielding using plastics can be
accomplished by using high-aspect ratio
conductive fillers such as carbon and
stainless steel fibres. Shielding is provided
by a conductive medium that reflects,
absorbs or transmits the electromagnetic
radiation to the ground. Shielding effectiveness is determined by the extent to
which the intensity of an electromagnetic signal is reduced by the introduction of
a shielding medium. To obtain good
shielding effectiveness, a higher filler
loading and good dispersion in the
plastics are required.
For EMI shielding plastics, metalcoated fillers such as nickel-coated

Figure 7. Alumina (Al2O3) filled PPS composites.


Higher filler loading is needed for effective
thermal conductivity with these types of
ceramic fillers.

With electronic devices gaining power


with faster chips, speedy media drives
and hard disks, design engineers have
really started to feel the heat generated
in these systems. Thermal management
was once accomplished with a few wellplaced fans, vents and aluminium heat
sinks. But todays small, hot electronics
can benefit from new ways to keep cool
like using thermally conductive plastics.
Whereas unfilled thermoplastics have a
thermal conductivity of around 0.2 W/
mK (Watts/meter-Kelvin), most thermally conductive plastic compounds typically have 10-50 times higher conductivity (1-10 W/mK). Similar to electrically
conductive plastics, thermal conductivity in plastics can be accomplished by
adding different thermally conductive
fillers. The most common fillers are
alumina-type ceramic fillers since they
are less expensive and impart isotropic
thermal conductivity (Figure 7).
Much higher thermal conductivity
can be achieved using speciality graphite
fibres made from petroleum pitch. Unlike
polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based carbon
fibres, pitch-based carbon fibres have low
electrical conductivity but high thermal
conductivity due to their wavy radial
structure, and have conductivity values
of 500-1000 W/mK. By comparison,
structural-grade carbon fibres based on
PAN have conductivities less than 10 W/
mK. Other commonly used fillers include
boron nitride and aluminium nitride,
which are electrically insulative ceramic
fillers with a thermal conductivity of 6080 W/mK for boron nitride and 300 W/
mK for aluminium nitride powders.
Thermally conductive plastics are getting increasingly popular in hard disk

Figure 8. The spindle motor of a hard disk


drive uses ceramic filler filled plastics to
dissipate heat.

drive internal components (Figure 8), lap


top computers, and other electrical
devices where placing cooling fans is
becoming impractical. These types of
plastics are also used in larger devices
such as computer base stations as heat
sinks to protect electronic components.

Challenges
Plastic composites play an important
role in the electrical and electronic
industry for their optimum performance
as described here by controlling both
electrical and thermal conductivity. As
this industry grows, designers face more
challenging requirements. These can
only be met through innovation of new
polymers and fillers systems and ways of
effectively combining these to obtain
maximum benefit.


Dr Jay Amarasekera, GE Advanced Materials/LNP, 475 Creamery Way, Exton,


PA 19341, USA; e-mail: jay.amarasekera@ge.com.
This article was presented at the RP Asia
2005 conference in Bangkok, Thailand,
on 25-26 August (www.
rpasia.com). The proceedings from this conference are available to
purchase; e-mail rp@
elsevier.com for details.

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