Substrate electroplating

Fluoroboric acid is used as a stripping solution for the removal of solder and plated metals from less active substrates. A number of fluoroborate plating baths (27) require pH adjustment with fluoroboric acid (see Electroplating). 

AppHcations for electroplated indium coatings include indium bump bonding for shicon semiconductor die attachment to packaging substrates and miscehaneous appHcations where the physical or chemical properties of indium metal are desired as a plated deposit. 

In electroless deposition, the substrate, prepared in the same manner as in electroplating (qv), is immersed in a solution containing the desired film components (see Electroless plating). The solutions generally used contain soluble nickel salts, hypophosphite, and organic compounds, and plating occurs by a spontaneous reduction of the metal ions by the hypophosphite at the substrate surface, which is presumed to catalyze the oxidation—reduction reaction. 

Nickel—2iiic batteries containing a vibrating zinc anode lias been reported (83). In this system zinc oxide active material is added to the electrol 1 e as a slurry. During charge the anode substrates are vibrated and the zinc is electroplated onto the surface in a unifomi mamier. Tlie stationary positive electrodes (nickel) are encased in a thin, open plastic netting which constitutes the entire separator system. 

Electroplating. Chromium is electroplated onto various substrates in order to realize a more decorative and corrosion- or wear-resistant surface (24—32). About 80% of the chromium employed in metal treatment is used for chromium plating over 50% is for decorative chromium plating (see Metal surface treatments). Hard chromium plating differs from decorative plating mostiy in terms of thickness. Hard chromium plate may be 10 to several 100 p.m thick, whereas the chromium layers in a decorative plate may be as thin as 0.25 p.m, which corresponds to about two grams Cr per square meter of surface. 

Cladding may be less expensive than selective electro deposition when coatings greater than 1 p.m of a noble metal are required, but may be more expensive than electro deposition for thinner coatings. Selective techniques are most easily used for sheet metal substrates that are to be machine stamped and formed into contacts. Clad noble metals are considerably more ductile (and less hard) than comparable electro deposits and, therefore, are better suited to forming operations. Contacts that are made into separate parts from rod by screw machining are usually coated on all exposed surfaces by barrel electroplating. 

Surfaces. Essentially any electrically conductive surface can be electroplated, although special techniques may be required to make the surface electrically conductive. Many techniques ate used to metalline nonconductive surfaces. These are weU-covered ia the Hterature (3) and can range from coating with metallic-loaded paints or reduced-silver spray, to autocatalytic processes on tin—palladium activated surfaces or vapor-deposited metals. Preparation steps must be optimized and closely controlled for each substrate being electroplated. 

Although metals and alloy substrates account for much of the volume ia electroplating, there is a large and growing amount of plastic surfaces being plated, both for decorative trim and for electronic shielding appHcations. On a smaller scale, other materials that ate plated iaclude wood (qv), plaster, fibers (qv) and cloth materials, and plant and animal tissue, such as leaves, leather (qv), paper (qv), and seasheUs. 

Poor preparation of the substrate can result in loss of adhesion, pitting, roughness, lower corrosion resistance, smears, and stains. Because electroplating takes place at the exact molecular surface of a work, it is important that the substrate surface be absolutely clean and receptive to the plating. In the effort to get the substrate into this condition, several separate steps may be required, and it is in these cleaning steps that most of the problems associated with plating arise. 

Electroplating—the process of electrodeposition onto a metallic substrate of a thin adherent layer of a metal or alloy having desirable chemical, physical and/or mechanical properties. 

The metallic substrate, clean and rinsed, is immersed wet in the plating cell. The base metals which are usually plated present an essentially metallic surface to the electrolyte, and the slight corrosive action of the rinse water in preventing the formation of any substantial oxide film is important. A critical balance of corrosion processes in the initial stages is vital to successful electroplating, and for this reason there is a severe restriction on the composition of the electroplating bath which may be used for a particular substrate. This will be discussed later. The substrate is made the cathode of the cell it may be immersed without applied potential ( dead entry) or may be already part of a circuit which is completed as soon as the substrate touches the electrolyte ( live entry). Live entry reduces the tendency for the plating electrolyte to corrode the substrate in the period before the surface... 

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