TR-Clad™ Flexible Laminates combine Applied Aerospace & Defense polyimide materials with copper foil to provide the lowest dielectric constant, thinnest, and lowest weight copper/polyimide laminates available. Additionally, TR-Clad™ is available with electrostatic dissipative polyimide.
TR-Clad™ (short for “Transmit/Receive-Clad”) is a fundamental building block for ultra-lightweight flexible circuits and flexible antennas. TR-Clad™ Flexible Laminates are starting materials from which flexible circuits and flexible antennas are etched with lithographic processes.
TR-Clad™ exhibits a record low dielectric constant of 2.5, which is much lower than the dielectric constant of 3.4 to 3.7 reported for competitive materials of all polyimide construction. Such a remarkably low dielectric constant reduces cross-talk between circuit traces and provides finer feature sizes and allows for higher frequencies. This enables high data-rate applications and additional miniaturization, which provides for additional lowering of the final product weight.
TR-Clad™ flexible circuit materials are the thinnest and lightest weight copper-clad laminates available. While several configurations of TR-Clad™ are available, our unique manufacturing processes enable the manufacture of TR-Clad™ as adhesiveless 2 micron polyimide affixed to 9 micron copper in the 29E and 29N grades. This is a full 64% thinner and 53% lighter than the typical “lightweight” grade of 12.5 micron polyimide affixed to 18 micron copper.
TR-Clad™ Flexible Laminates are the first, and so far the only, copper/polyimide laminates with grades available using electrostatically-dissipative (ESD) polyimide. A low level of surface electrical conductivity (10^8-10^12 ohm/sq) is required in many applications requiring ESD functionality to prevent static charge buildup that damages sensitive microchip circuitry affixed to the TR-Clad™ portion of the flexible circuit.
Novaclear® Polyimide is a colorless polyimide with a higher temperature stability than Applied’s CP1 Polyimide, exhibiting a glass transition temperature exceeding 330°C.
NovaClear® Polyimide is a transparent, colorless polyimide with temperature durability comparable to many traditional amber polyimides.
NovaClear® has a low yellowness index and high Tg which make this material suitable for use in display applications with high temperatures. It is available as a film, liquid resin, or raw polymer powder.
Liquid NovaClear® resin can be direct coated onto many substrates; however, unlike traditional polyimide resins, no high temperature cure is required for this material. NovaClear® can be custom formulated with pigments, dyes, and many other additive chemistries to meet the needs of many applications.