Low-Stress Silicone Encapsulant Expands Portfolio for Solar Inverters

Dow Corning introduced Dow Corning® EE-3200 Low-Stress Silicone Encapsulant – the latest addition to its broad and growing portfolio of advanced solutions designed to expand performance and durability of solar micro-inverters, power optimizers and other high value components.

Offering a tailored balance of low viscosity, room-temperature cure, low hardness and good thermal conductivity, EE-3200 Low-Stress Silicone Encapsulant is a two-part silicone formulation that helps minimize processing costs compared to competitive polyurethane encapsulant materials. Unlike polyurethanes, which often require pre-heating before application, Dow Corning’s advanced silicone formulation eliminates the pre-heating step – with its associated costs – and enables electronic assemblies to be filled more quickly. Additionally, where polyurethane encapsulants generally take 90 minutes to cure, EE-3200 Low-Stress Silicone Encapsulant offers simple room-temperature cure with the option to reduce cure time to 20 minutes at temperatures of 50° C, further minimizing processing costs.

Dow Corning’s advanced low-stress encapsulant protects sensitive electronic components against mechanical strain caused by thermal cycling while also providing mechanical adhesion to prevent corrosion from moisture ingress. This improves the reliability, durability, and therefore the value of solar micro-inverters. The components in electronic modules encapsulated with EE-3200 Low-Stress Silicone Encapsulant were exposed to 60 percent less stress in accelerated aging tests, compared to components in modules encapsulated with polyurethane. This indicates that Dow Corning’s new material can help extend the lifetime of solar installations even under harsh conditions. Its dielectric properties and low viscosity also make it ideally suited for use in today’s smaller designs where traditional encapsulants can entrap voids or experience property changes with exposure to humidity.

About Dow Company

Dow Inc. is a material science company that is combining science and technology to develop solutions. The Company’s portfolio comprised of six global business units, organized into three operating segments: Performance Materials & Coatings, Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure and Packaging & Specialty Plastics. Its products serve different applications, including coatings, home and personal care, durable goods, adhesives and sealants, and food and specialty packaging. In addition, the Company operates a global commercial and development network that features eight research and development (R&D) centers.