Silicone Elastomers for Automotive Electronic Applications

Silicone elastomers are soft, flexible materials which are employed in automotive electronics applications to improve packaging reliability. Their physical and electrical properties are stable over a wide range of temperature and humidity conditions.

However, the selection of the best elastomer for a particular application is complicated somewhat by the wide variety of formulations now available to the designer. This paper will present an overview of the field of silicone elastomers, starting from the types of cure systems now available. Cure systems form natural groupings for selection purposes. Applications are discussed, and four recent products are highlighted.