PROOFCAP ENTERS COMMERCIALISATION PHASE

For 20 years the main business of PROOFCAP has been to consult various industries and companies in their electronics capsulation projects.

NOW THE COMPANY HAS DECIDED TO UTILISE ITS AGGREGATED KNOWLEDGE TO SELL AND MANUFACTURE CUSTOM DESIGN ELECTRONICS CAPSULATION TO THE GLOBAL ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY.

PROOFCAP now seeks customers who need lightweight, moisture proof electronics capsulation with excellent RF-shielding properties.

PROOFCAP also seek partners with the aim to license its business model to them and copy its present small scale manufacturing process.

In addition a large capacity manufacturing process will be set up.

Background

The founder of PROOFCAP AB, chemical technology engineer Karl-Erik Leeb, who has worked with all kinds of cutting-edge technology for the manufacture of modern circuits within one of the world's most successful telecommunications companies, realized that there would be a need for a new type of packaging technology that protects against the outdoor environment and at the same time shields against electrical interference and which does not cause any negative effects on the circuit at low temperature.

Karl-Erik comments: "It became clear early on that existing laminates did not have sufficient quality in terms of moisture resistance in adhesion between plastic and metal and that the metal used in standard laminates did not have sufficient resistance to corrosion. A surprisingly large amount of work was required to find an acceptable combination, process and tooling for forming of the shells and sealing process to make an hermetic capsulation.”

Development and Invention

The development has been carried out partly in collaboration with partners and has been largely completed within ProofCap AB. There, essential technical solutions and equipment have made it possible to efficiently manufacture a very exclusive and modern capsule that solves the existing problems and that has the potential to become a standard for capsulating electronics.

The invention consists of a capsule formed from two bowl-shaped laminate halves that are welded together around the circuit. The laminate consists of plastic film on each side of a metal foil.

The capsule is moisture-proof even against diffusing water molecules and is electrically shielding, in addition, the circuit is not affected at low temperature and the technology is in every way very environmentally friendly. A patent for this was obtained in 1991 and the technique is called ProofCap.

In parallel, a machine for welding the joint between the two capsule halves and a technique for contacting the metal layers were developed. Patents were obtained for the welding machine and the contacting principle. At the end of this work, tests were carried out with the enclosure of various prototypes and shielding tests. The shielding was amazingly effective.

Shortly after trials were started with a form of microstrip-fed patch antenna and trials were made with those integrated in a ProofCap capsule together with Luleå University of Technology. The experiments worked well and a patent was obtained.