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Uniform Deposits on Panels with 'Shadowing'

2001

We are starting up an acid copper plating tank for printed circuit fabrication. This is a 'home built' job made form a standard 20 liter pail and two anode bars mounted vertically at opposite sides. A single panel is suspended vertically in between these two anodes. Air sparging is used for agitation. The plating bath so far seems to run successfully producing smooth deposits. Bath composition is high acid low copper typically used in high throwing power applications.

Our problem is terrible plating uniformity with up to double the plating thickness at bottom end of the panel than at the top end. The common method described in plating books is to create 'shadows' by placing non-conductive panels near areas prone to high current densities. I'm interested in how to go about this, and where to fix these non-conductive panels (e.g. PVC sheets)? Is experimentation the best way to go?

Adam Seychell
- Victoria, Australia

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