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8 PCB007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2024 Marcy's Musings by Marcy LaRont, I-CONNECT007 Destination Metallization To reach your intended destination, you must have some form of pathway or route upon which to travel. It is much the same with the metallized traces and features on a printed cir- cuit board. ey are how electrical signals and power are carried from one point to another in an electronic device. Copper is the most preva- lent metal conductor, but other metals are also used to a lesser degree, including gold, silver, tin, and palladium. Not much has changed in the plating manu- facturing process in the past five decades. How- ever, as miniaturization and the development of advanced packaging accelerate within and around the sphere of PCB fabrication, alterna- tive plating metals and newer plating processes have been introduced. Necessity is the mother of invention, aer all. ese newer processes bring up a lot of interest and discussion around alternate metallization and process technolo-