Smart cards have been in the market for a long time. And, in some regions of the world -- namely Europe and Asia Pacific – these devices are the norm. In other locales, such as the US and China, the proliferation of smart cards is a more recent phenomenon. In the US, for example, magnetic strip cards have represented the more prevalent method for data transfer and point of sale transactions. However, the amount of data that can be stored is far more limited with the magnetic strip and certainly not as secure. For these reasons, the smart card is the secure transaction method of choice – at least for now. With the advent of mobile device payment systems, the future is uncertain for smart cards. But, at least in the near term, they will remain the dominant technology for the identification and banking markets and their penetration is far from complete.

In terms of their size, the IC dies used in smart cards can range from very small (1 mm x 1 mm) to quite large (7 mm x 7 mm) and therefore require materials that can accommodate the processability and reliability requirements dictated by smart card manufacturing demands and in-field use. For die attach materials, specifically, fast processing, low stress characteristics, good adhesion and encapsulant compatibility are critical to high-yield, high-volume production of reliable smart cards.

As the leader in smart card die attach solutions, Henkel has recently developed a brand new die attach formulation designed for exceptionally fast processing and compatibility with the most widely used encapsulants in the market, including Henkel encapsulants such as LOCTITE EO 7021. The new die attach, LOCTITE ABLESTIK ABP 2035SCR, has been designed as the successor to the popular LOCTITE ABLESTIK ABP 2035SC material, and has been improved to be compatible with UV-curable smart card encapsulants. Compared to its predecessor, LOCTITE ABLESTIK ABP 2035SCR allows faster encapsulant wetting of the die and die fillet area, eliminating the need for complex dispense patterns. Previous gen