May 2008

Omni Graphics introduces Ormecon Nanofinish

As part of our dedication to continuous improvement and offering the finest technologies for printed circuit board manufacturing, Omni Graphics has recently formed an agreement with Ormecon International to provide the ORMECON® Organic Metal Nanofinish. Omni Graphics will be the first to offer the Ormecon Organic Metal Nanofinish in Canada.

OM Nanofinish will be offered as one of many final finishes that Omni Graphics customers can select (e.g. HASL, ENIG, Immersion Silver, Immersion Tin, and now OM Nanofinish). Over the next several newsletter editions, we'll explore the features and benefits of the Nanofinish and begin to show you some of the ways it can improve your PCB technology.

Best wishes,

Jac Kroeker

If you have an opinion or advice regarding this newsletter, please contact us via email at jac@omnigraph.com subject "newsletter".

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What is the Organic Metal?

The OM Nanofinish uses Organic Metal™, a conductive polymer developed by Ormecon™ International. Organic metal (OM) is an advanced form of conductive polymers that has metallic properties even though it is characterized as an organic compound. The material contains carbon (C), hydrogen (H), nitrogen (N), oxygen (O) and sulphate (So) as elements and is synthesized and dispersed in the form of 10 nanometer (nm) small primary particles.

The Organic Metal is based on polyaniline chemistry. It is insoluble and unmoldable, but Ormecon International has made it dispersable so it can be used in a variety of industrial applications. Ormecon manufactures the Organic Metal and provides it as ready-to-use dispersions for printed circuit board manufacturing, corrosion protection, antistatic and conductive surface modification, organic and polymer light emitting diodes (OLEDs, PLEDs), "plastic electronics" and many other products.

Organic Metal is used already in CSN White Tin predip

Organic Metal has been used for approximately 10 years as part of Ormecon's CSN immersion tin predip. This process is well established as one of the top quality alternative finishes required for lead-free electronics manufacturing. The organic metal predip is applied as a 80nm thin adsorbed layer, and it enables a Sn layer of about 1µm thick to be deposited in a very precise and reliable way. 

Using Organic Metals in Final Surface Finish

Omni Graphics now offers customers the opportunity to enjoy a new application for Organic Metal: a final surface finish for printed circuit boards. This new process will offer a simple, short and easily controlled process with high reproducibility, energy savings between 60% and 90%, and raw material consumption reduced by 80-99%. These surface finishes offer high multiple reflow solderability without reducing solderability.

Four types of finishes using the Organic Metal are available: OM Nanofinish "Top Grade" and "General Grade", OM Silver Nanofinish and OM CSN Nanofinish. Omni Graphics will provide the OM Nanofinish Top Grade as well as the OM CSN Nanofinish. We are currently evaluating the OM Silver Nanofinish to determine whether it will address our customers' needs.

Ormecon has provided a useful summary of some of the advantages of using the Organic Metal in PCB finish. Visit that document on our website!

OM Universal Nanofinish ("Top Grade")

The OM Nanofinish consists of just a 50nm thin layer of an Organic Metal-Silver complex. 90% of the layer volume is purely organic and the effective silver layer thickness is only 4nm. OM Nanofinish offers a much more powerful oxidation protection and solderability preservation than any other established metallic finish, even though other finishes may be between 6 to 100 times thicker. OM Nanofinish "top grade"  will replace all types of surface finish including ENIG. 

The SEM photo above shows that the OM-Ag complex deposits preferably on the particle edges. The majority of the surface area seen in the SEM is copper, although it is not accessible for oxidation. The solderability of the surface is excellent even after 5 reflow aging steps.

CSN (Silver) Nanofinish

Through the increased requirements of lead-free soldering conditions, the required tin layer thickness has significantly increased. Longer lines and immersion times with the corresponding higher costs and consumption are the results. The CSN Nanofinish involves Organic Metal based pre-dips before the tin bath. Through this it is possible to reach the same level of solderability after multiple soldering steps with a 400nm tin layer, where up to now 1 - 1.2µm tin is required.

Who is Ormecon?

Ormecon International is the technology and market leader for immersion tin finish technology. Headquartered in Ammersbek, Germany, the company was founded in 1996 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zipperling Kessler, with the goal to commercialize products based on the Organic Metal nanotechnology, ORMECON™. The first products introduced were Ormecon CSN for final solderable surface finishes on printed circuit boards and other Organic Metal nanotechnology-based products and processes.

Ormecon has granted licences to enable further use of its technology to:

• Bayer AG
• DuPont
• Merck KGaA (Covion and Avecia business units)
• Nissan Chemical Industries.

How can Customers get the OM Nanofinish or CSN Nanofinish?

The OM Nanofinish and CSN Nanofinish options are integrated into Omni Graphics manufacturing facilities. Customers can specify the desired nanofinish in their readme file when they upload their Gerber data for manufacturing. These options were added in April 2008 and we have been pleased with the results so far.

For more information...

If you are interested in learning more, please contact Jac Kroeker by phone (604-276-9717) or email jac@omnigraph.com.
Future Omni Review newsletters will provide information about more of the features and benefits of the Ormecon products in our manufacturing facility.

© 2008 Omni Graphics Ltd.Back to Newsletter Index.