A Systematic Evaluation of Polyurethane as a Conformal Coating for the Inhibition of Corrosion on Electronic Components

The corrosion of printed circuit boards can be effectively prevented with a polyurethane conformal coating. In this study, the protective performance of PU coating was investigated systematically through electrochemical measurements and simulated exposure/immersion tests. Some fungi tests were also included. All experimental results show that a polyurethane coating effectively inhibits corrosion on printed circuit boards. The optimal thickness of the coating film should be about 60 μm. Long-term exposure tests showed that this coating material could preserve the reliability of the investigated printed circuit boards for more than 400 days in a 90% relative humidity environment at 25°C.