Isola complies with space agency's material specification

16th September 2014

Isola Group

Siobhan O'Gorman

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After working in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), Isola now complies with the ESA's specification for a cleaner class of base materials. Known as Appendix A, the standard defines the additional requirements to the Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits’ standard IPC-4101-D: Specification for Base Materials for Rigid and Multilayer Printed Boards.

To reduce the risk of contamination of foreign material that can affect the reliability of PCBs used in aerospace applications, Appendix A requires additional processes and testing by base material manufacturers. Due to electromigration along foreign material in a harsh environment, PCBs designed with small spacing or high voltage can be subject to failure of insulation resistance. ESA's standard was introduced to prevent this failure.

Karl Stollenwerk, Isola’s European President, commented, “We were pleased to confirm our ability to comply with the new requirement. The high reliability sectors, including aerospace, are important segments of our business, and we are committed to a process of continuous improvement in order to satisfy, or exceed, the ever-increasing demands of our customer base."

"Isola has made significant investments worldwide in the automation of resin compounding operations, enclosures of treating equipment, and other improvements to mitigate in-line contamination. There are some additional costs of compliance; however, we believe these to be fully justified in improving our customers’ yields and significantly reducing risk in aerospace applications.”