Design considerations - Plating Characteristics for Conductors and Holes

6 important questions on Design considerations - Plating Characteristics for Conductors and Holes

Which three general methods are commomly used for plating metals on to circuit boards?

  • immersion plating
  • electroless plating
  • electroplating
These are all "wet" chemistry processes.
Dry metallization (sputtering) used in semiconductor processing is not commonly used for PCB fabrication.

What is the primary function of metallic coatings?

To contribute to the formation of the conductive pattern.
Additional benefits by specific platings may offer:
  • corrosion prevention of the copper circuitry
  • improved long-term solderability
  • wear resistance

The metal used for surface protection should be compatible with the joining material. Why?

The metal used for plating combines with the assembly metallurgy.
Solder coating combines well with solder.
Gold must be thin to avoid gold embrittlement.
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What is immersion plating?

A simple galvanic replacement reaction. The more noble metal in the solution picks up electrons from the less noble metal immersed in the solution. The thickness is limited to a very thin coating.
e.g. immersion tin, immersion gold
These processes work very rapidly on clean bare copper.

What is electroless plating?

This method is commonly used to do initial plating of non-conductive surfaces such as through-holes. Copper is most common but may be replaced with a coating of carbon of graphite film. Deposition rates are slow.

How can the layout of the circuit effect the plating process?

Isolated circuits can plate much faster than other portions of the circuit leading to either excessively thick plating or a plating of very poor quality.
It is desirable for the designer to fill open areas of the circuit pattern with hatching or other non-functional features to help more evenly distribute current during plating.

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