ABSTRACT
Sealants prevent various external environmental agents from entering the interior of a protected enclosure. A successful sealant must withstand and provide protection against a number of location-specic external, mechanical, chemical, and electrical environmental inuences over the life of a product. Resisting these inuences in automotive electronics packaging is exceptionally challenging. The substrate materials, to which a sealant must form a joint, are equally diverse in both composition and conguration. Sealing electronic components from outside environmental agents in any one of a number of distinct automotive environments (schematized in Figure 16.1) poses many additional technical challenges. This is especially true considering high-volume/low-defect automotive electronic component manufacturing.
