GENERAL INFORMATION | STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
Parylene coating is applied through a vapor deposition process at the molecular level, where films essentially ‘grow’ a molecule at a time onto the substrate or material that is being coated. 

• A solid, granular raw material, called dimer, is heated under vacuum and vaporized into a dimeric gas.

• The gas is then pyrolized to cleave the dimer to its monomeric form.

• In the room temperature deposition chamber, the monomer gas deposits on all surfaces as a thin, transparent polymer film.

• The final stage of the parylene deposition process is the cold trap. The cold trap is cooled to between -90º and -120º C by liquid nitrogen and is responsible for removing all residual parylene materials pulled through the coating chamber.

Because Parylene is applied as a gas, the coating effortlessly penetrates crevices and tight areas on multi-layer components, providing complete and uniform encapsulation. Optimal thickness of the polymer coatings is determined based on the application and the coating properties desired. While Parylene coatings can range in thickness from hundreds of angstroms to several mils, a typical thickness is in the microns range. The Parylene coating system is now connection to an automatic liquid nitrogen switch. Please note new operating instructions.

CONTACT INFORMATION

For more information about the Payelene coater please contact the clean room staff at: cniCR@columbia.edu.