Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1471044
10 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2022 Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team For this month's plating issue, we spoke with I-Connect007 columnist Michael Carano, a longtime surface finish expert with years of experience at RBP Chemical and OM Group. He is now VP of Quality at Averatek. We asked him to discuss the latest innovations in plat- ing equipment and chemicals, as well as some of the drivers in this segment, and the biggest challenges and opportunities he sees in plating today. As Michael points out, despite all of the tech- nological advances in this industry, process engineers still need a solid understanding of Faraday's Law and Ohm's Law to successfully plate PCBs. Andy Shaughnessy: is is our electroplating issue, and I've heard you say that you know how to plate anything. What's the latest in electroplating? What sort of innovations and challenges are you seeing in processes, equip- ment, etc.? Michael Carano: If you go back 30 years, what's different in electroplating technology? For- get about electrodes for now. What's different about electroplating technology? I like to call it electrodeposition because we are attaching electrodes and we're running current through a tank. In the last 10–15 years, it hasn't changed much. But what has changed is the technology of the circuit board—smaller vias and thicker boards. Whenever you make a via smaller and you add more layers, what you do is you increase what they call the ohmic resistance through the via. With Ohm's Law, V = IR; you apply a volt- age to a plating tank. If you have a 10:1 aspect PCB Plating Still Comes Down to Physics