Electrostatic build up and its discharge is one of the well known problems faced by the electronics industry. As far as electronics are concerned, electrostatic discharge (ESD) can have dismal and unintended consequences including damages to electronic chips and devices. Additionally, the susceptibility of the electronic components to ESD increases with the growing demand for smaller and more-compact devices having high circuit density with smaller size. Voltages of 30-7,000 are enough to destroy computer chips, and workers walking through a cleanroom curtain can pick up a charge that could discharge and damage a wafer in a fabrication plant. Polymers are increasingly outdoing metals in manufacturing areas due to of their versatility, flexibility, and cost-economy. Employing antistatic, dissipative polymers or permanent antistatic additives to control ESD is essential, especially in light of rising trend for compact and high performance electronics devices and gadgets. In electronics packaging industry, conductive plastics find applications in transport systems, storage boxes for electronic circuit boards, electronic component bags, protective packs for chips and thermoformed sheets for trays. Moreover, these antistatic and dissipative plastics are also employed in ESD Protected Areas (EPAs) where circuit boards and other electronic equipments are assembled. Most commonly, the insulating thermoplastics can be converted into a static-dissipative polymer by conductive filler particles or antistatic agents including carbon black, carbon fibers among others to create a network of interconnecting particles within the polymer compound, thereby inhibiting ESD.

Cabot Corporation has developed a range of compounds specially designed for use in plastics processing equipment, under the CABELEC name that are permanently electrically conductive and help reduce risk of a catastrophic discharge of electrostatic energy. These compounds are an integral part of the performance of the material and are not dependent on humidity to achieve the electrical performance. They find applications in bags, reel carrier tapes, thermoformed trays and many other types of electronic packagings, and applications in EPAs including wrist straps, flooring and matting to make them conductive for preventing instances of ESDs.
However, carbon black can have a negative effect on mechanical properties of the modified polymer. Colour has always been a problem with use of this filler which often are available in shades of black and offer limited differentiation to devices. According to several studies, carbon black though humidity independent, can significantly reduce the lifetime of the devices, shows immunity towards expelling itself from the compound after extreme friction thereby reducing the conductive and antistatic properties of the compounds. These shortfalls limit their widespread use as antistatic, dissipative fillers in polymers. Lately, there have been advancements made in field to develop colourable, permanent, non migratory and humidity independent dissipative additives to overcome the shortfalls of using the Carbon Black for inhibition of ESD in electronic devices. DuPont Packaging & Industrial Polymers recently announced their addition of two new additive grades. These new additives, which are ideal for use with polyolefins and other polymers, ensure permanent, anti-static dissipation and provide superb aesthetics, clarity, non-yellowing and dust free protection which is of vital importance for the sensitive electronics. Unlike the diffusive antistat solutions, which are often concentrated on the product surface and can wear off due to rubbing, water or age, the new Entira� Antistat grades are integrated directly into the product, adding immediate and permanent anti-static action, and a smooth, transparent surface appearance that allows better adhesion and printability. They also prevent yellowing due to age, can be used in a discrete layer without migrating to other layers and help to minimize die build-up. Additionally, when used with polyolefins, it is currently the only permanent additive on the market to deliver both antistatic properties and transparency in the final product. Contextually, Entira� Antistat SD 100 can be used in electronics packaging to decrease sparks that could damage equipment.

Ciba Specialty Chemicals� IRGASTAT� P family is another example of colourable, permanent, non migratory and humidity independent dissipative additives. This antistat is incorporated during melt processing to form a permanent, static dissipative network in the host polymer. Unlike standard migratory antistatic agents, the static dissipative performance is effective immediately and remains unchanged with time, even after washing and wiping. Due to its non-migratory nature, it is also non-corrosive and non-contaminating. It consistently provides resistivity performance in the 109-1012 ohm/sq range and enable the material to provide a continuous, controlled dissipation of charge to the atmosphere, eliminating the need for grounding. This dissipative additive is supplied in pellet form, can be added during standard molding or extrusion processes without a pre-compounding step. Its efficacy has been shown in a number of thermoplastic substrates including polyolefins, styrenics, PVC and engineering plastics. Displaying high dissipative behaviour, IRGASTAT P modified materials can help meet the static charge decay requirements of industry specifications such as EIA IS-5 and Mil-B-81705.
The Lubrizol Corporation�s conductive polymers also include a wide range of permanent static control polymer choices for electronic applications including fillers, Inherently Dissipative Polymer alloys, carbon fiber and carbon black in host polymers including PP, PC, acrylic, ABS, PETG, TPU and others. In ESD applications, the Lubrizol�s Stat-Rite�polymer alloys score well above its others products in performance for electrostatic control (ESD and cleanliness). Stat-Rite�polymer alloys enable static dissipation without compromising cleanliness. These alloys blend a proprietary, inherently dissipative polymer with a variety of base polymers, thereby producing polymer alloys with an inherent static dissipative polymer network. Current base polymers include polypropylene, acrylic, soft polyurethane, PETG, ABS and others. This inherent static dissipative network remains intact through thermoforming, injection molding, or extruding while maintaining the physical properties of the base polymer. Thes alloys are well preferred for applications like packaging and transport of disk drive heads and other components, transport and storage of wafers and other storage media and also for shipping handling electronics sub-assemblies. The benefits include its reused or recycled without loss of ESD protection; non-corroding, non-contaminating, non-off-gassing and consistency in performance unlike coatings and fillers.
Finland�s IonPhasE develops and manufactures high performance dissipative polymers for applications in wide range of industries like chemical, automotive, telecommunication and consumer electronics. The company uses a patented technology to manufacture polymers called IonPhasE� IPE� (IonomerPolyElectrolyte). These polymers combine the best features of two polymer groups: ionomers and polymer polyelectrolytes. IonPhasE� IPE� prefers host polymers including PE, PP (Polyolefins); PS, HIPS, ABS, ABS-PC, ASA, PMMA, PA; PET-G, APET and also TPE, TPE-E, TPU SBS, SEBS. IonPhasE� IPE� based plastic products have immediate, permanent, humidity independent, dissipative and low charging properties (antistatic) and require ultra thin layers and low concentrations to achieve the same.. Plastics products made from these materials exhibit capability of self-neutralizing electrostatic fields and support processing technologies including blown film extrusion, cast film extrusion, injection molding, sheet extrusion, tube and wire & cable extrusion, blow molding and fiber spinning. IonPhasE� IPE� is available in granulate form as a masterbatch or ready-to-use compound.
Leading chemical company, BASF also develops chemical antistatic additives for thermoplastics under the name LAROSTAT� HTS 905. LAROSTAT HTS 905 is suited for use in high temperature applications, above 300 �F. It shows higher thermal stability (stable to 250 �C) and can provide long term, internal static protection. LAROSTAT HTS 905 is used in engineered thermoplastics, flexible PVC, PP, and others. The additive is a liquid product but is also offered in a powdered form as a 60% active version on silica, LAROSTAT HTS 905S.

Applications of conductive and dissipative polymer solutions for static control in electronics industry will largely expand with the increasing demand for extremely compact and ultra-thin devices. Some key attributes and considerations for the industry to opt for specific ESD control applications include cost, permanence of anti-ESD behaviour, consistency in surface resistivity, cleanliness and recylability. However, modern developments including the use of inherently dissipative polymer alloys are set to rise due to their flexibility of use with different processes and availability of number of base polymers in the alloys as against relatively conventional methods like using carbon fillers, and antistats.