HHV develops innovative process of coating on plastics

Hind High Vacuum Co. Pvt. Ltd. (HHV),a vacuum science and Technology Company with major clients like HAL, ISRO, BARC, Titan etc, announced that it has indigenously developed an innovative process of coating on plastics to provide Electromagnetic Radiation Interference (EMI) shielding. This was entirely developed by HHV’s team of scientists at its Bangalore facility as a part of its ongoing ‘Make in India’ initiative.

These coatings will find application in the field of Electronics, telecommunications, medical instrumentation, Flat Panel displays, membrane switches, sensors, Aircraft canopies etc. EMI can disrupt electronic devices, equipment and systems that are used in critical applications viz. Medical, military, aerospace, touch screens, navigation to name a few. The causes of EMI include both manmade and natural.

Traditionally EMI shielding materials include flexible metal sheets that can fit into the electronic housing or enclosure. Aluminium, copper and steel are commonly used. Coatings made of metallic inks are also applied to interiors of electronic enclosures to provide EMI shielding.

The biggest challenge one faces is when the display panel of the electronic device which is made of plastic or acrylic material has to be made EMI resistant. The metal sheet cannot cover the display panel as it has to be transparent.
“HHV scientists have overcome this limitation by developing a process of coating a material which is conducting as well as transparent. The special process uses ion assisted magnetron sputtering technique under a high vacuum” said Prasanth Sakhamuri, Managing Director of HHV.

ITO coatings can be applied by this technique on to flexible substrates such as PET and Kapton which are widely used in scientific research and LCD / OLED manufacturing processes. The ITO coated substrates can further be patterned to create a circuit of required resistance and can be connected to external sources using conductive paints, inks or tapes. ITO coatings on plastics also find applications as low-E windows, which have a high transmission of visible light while reflecting IR radiation. ITO coatings can also be index-matched along with an Antireflection Coating layer in applications such as LCD displays to reduce reflectance at various interfaces.