Aerospace & Defense Technology - December 2024 - 8

Materials
Figure 3. Pioneer Circuits' flexible cables made with Pyralux (left) can be folded or even crumpled without affecting performance, regardless of length, for implementation
in such end applications as the Mars Perseverance Rover (right). (Image: DuPont Interconnect Solutions)
Figure 4. Flat flexible cables made with Pyralux can be folded or even crumpled without affecting performance
and can be anywhere from a few feet to 100 feet long. (Image: DuPont Interconnect Solutions)
their technical and management teams.
Dan Hansler, Senior Advisor, Technology
and Engineering, elaborated: " Our joint
efforts have brought to life numerous
innovative design projects, culminating
from the first-ever material development
of non-copper adhesiveless laminates used
in cryogenic satellite applications. A pioneering
moment came with the Mars
Rover Pathfinder, which utilized DuPont's
Pyralux AP material in what may have
been the industry's first qualified use of
adhesiveless laminate in space [Figure 3].
Subsequent Mars Rover missions continued
to incorporate our flexible circuitry,
featuring long-clad materials from DuPont
that extended up to 10 meters in length. "
Not only can these offerings help
address the aforementioned selection
considerations, but they have also
been certified to meet their respective,
required mil-spec standards, as well as
8
the NASA outgassing specification
(see Table 1).
Pyralux ML is the newest addition - a
polyimide laminate product clad not
with copper alone but using metal alloys.
This new approach enables Pyralux ML
to not merely resist heat, but to generate
heat, enabling thermal management of
temperature-sensitive devices, such as
flexible printed circuits, sensors, heaters
and thermocouples.
Aerospace Examples
Extremes of heat, cold and solar radiation
are the norm in outer space. Pyralux
laminates and Kapton films have been
shown to provide superior performance
for space and aeronautic applications. In
addition to the Mars Rover, some examples
include the following.
Space satellites. Kapton film and
Pyralux laminate products have been
mobilityengineeringtech.com
implemented for more than 6,000 satellites
worldwide, often in multiple
functions on a single satellite. For
example, Kapton film may be used for
multi-layer insulation and wire wrapping,
and to create multi-layer insulation
blankets. Pyralux laminates may
be used to create phased array antennae,
flex circuit interconnects on solar
panel backplanes, power-collection
flex cables (see Figure 4), solar power
bus bars, and flexible heaters.
James Webb Space Telescope.
Launched in 2021, JWST allows us to
study every phase of cosmic history. The
sunshield " sail " attached to the telescope
is made of five layers of ultrathin Kapton,
thermally bonded together in a grid pattern
of " ripstops. " The material separates
the JWST observatory into a warm,
sun-facing side (reaching approximately
400 °F) and a cool side (roughly -185 °F).
Drones. Defense drones made using
Pyralux flex board materials are designed
for fast, pop-up assembly. Shipped in
pieces to a military base, they can be
removed from their shipping containers
in the deployment location and quickly
put into use with little physical assembly
required, as shown in Figure 5.
Guided munitions. Precision guided
munitions are intended to hit a specific
target while minimizing collateral damage.
Pyralux flexible PCBs' form factor is
critical to joining components in guided
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Aerospace & Defense Technology - December 2024

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