Design007 Magazine

Design007-Nov2019

Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1183414

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 87 of 121

88 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2019 Electroless plating is a popular method in manufacturing printed circuits or flexible cir- cuits. The electroless plating concept is not new; it is used to protect conductors against oxidation. However, it is not the default pro- cess for printed circuit manufacturing. Many circuit manufacturers do not have in-house plating capabilities and rely on plating shops for surface finishing. Over the last decade, there has been remark- able progress with electroless plating. Nowa- days, material supplies have many new chemi- cals available for the plating process, especial- ly for surface treatments. Chemical suppliers are confident that circuit manufacturers can secure metallizing on plastic substrates with- out making a large investment. I participated in R&D projects during the '90s, where we tried to produce flexible cop- per laminates without adhesive layers. Man- ufacturers employed different processes, such as casting and sputtering, to generate new laminates. The combination of electro- less plating and electrical plating was consid- ered a candidate because it called for very little investment. Unfortunately, the chemical plating processes could not provide a secure enough bond strength between the base film and copper conductors and was not worth pursuing. New plating chemicals are available to use with the plating process and provide a reliable bond strength with flexible laminates. Howev- er, plating shops do not follow the recipe line by line and create their own process condi- tions by adding supplemental treatments to in- crease the cost performance. Usually, chemical costs are significant. Electroless Plating for Flexible Circuits EPTE Newsletter by Dominique K. Numakura, DKN Research LLC

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Design007 Magazine - Design007-Nov2019