Thermal Management: Arlon Silicone – Structural Adhesive Films

As a Rogers Preferred Converter, Gasket Engineering is a master fabricator for many different variations of Rogers Corporation’s Arlon® material, a line of structural adhesive films composed of fiberglass reinforced silicone rubber that have been developed for their exceptional thermal, physical and electric properties. Gasket Engineering can convert Arlon tape to meet the specific needs of your application.

If you’re not familiar with Rogers Arlon material, you might want to consider these options:

Arlon Material

Arlon Material: Secure™1600 XF

Arlon Secure1600 XF is an Arlon silicone adhesive that eliminates the need for mechanical fasteners and concerns about pump-out, compression set and fastener fatigue or loosening. When uncured, Secure 1600 XF is “high tack,” which allows customers to use lower-cost processing techniques. When thermally cured, this adhesive forms a high-strength, fully cross-linked and chemically bonded structural adhesive. It is resistant to heat, humidity and thermal shock.

The excellent dialectic strength of this Arlon silicone adhesive isolates power components on both primary and secondary sides of the power supply. This Arlon material is commonly used to adhere the following to heat sinks:

  • Power transistors
  • LED light modules
  • Electronic assemblies

Arlon Material: Protect™ 1500FC

Arlon Protect 1500FC is an easy to use, easy to apply insulator sheet of cured silicone rubber for use with mechanical fasteners, clips, springs and screws. This particular Arlon material is softer and more compliant than other insulators and wets at lower pressures. It is resistant to heat, humidity and shock but conforms to surface topography to maximize content area at Lowe fastener pressures.

One of the great aspects of this form of Arlon silicone is that it facilitates very even heat transfer that reduces hotspots by maximizing the contact area. It can electrically insulate to isolate your LED PCB or power transistor from the heat sink and is used to thermally couple:

  • Power transistors
  • LED light modules

Arlon Material: Secure™ 1500U

Arlon Secure 1500U is an Arlon tape that is a structural adhesive film composed of uncured silicone rubber that eliminates the need for mechanical fasteners and worries about screws coming loose, clips retaining clamping force, gap pads taking a compression set, or thermal greases pumping out. The reason that this Arlon silicone works so well is that this particular Arlon material forms a chemical bond with the substrate they are in contact with during cure to produce robust adhesion that is resistant to heat, humidity and shock. This Arlon tape decouples stress induced by mismatch coefficients of thermal expansion, improves consistency of thermal path to heat sink, and can be cured without pressure – even for small bonding areas of less than 5 cm².

Arlon Material: Secure™ 1500KT2

Secure 1500KT2 to is a structural adhesive film composed of uncured silicone rubber that is supported on 1 mil Dupont® Kapton® MT film for superior dielectri strength and puncture resistance. This Arlon silicone is a balanced construction with even rubber add-on on each side of the Kapton film. Secure 1500KT2 7.5 mil is an unbalanced construction with uneven rubber on each side of the Kapton film. The uneven rubber add-on is useful for improving wet out of excessively warped components.