Metal finishing Q&As since 1989
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Pulse plating for acid copper plating
Q. Interested in learning the what, how and why of pulse plating in electronics (circuit board) manufacturing.
Bob Boggio1998
A. Hi, Bob. If possible, try to get your hands on Theory and Practice of Pulse Plating [adv. this book on eBay, Amazon, or AbeBooks] by Jean-Claude Puippe and Frank Leaman. It's the only book I know of on the subject. Good luck.
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
A. Contact Steve Koelzer at K & K Consulting in Sunnyvale, CA. He has compiled an extensive amount of information on pulse plating theory and practice.
Art Kushner
Anaheim, California
1998
Printed circuit boards
Q. I am interested in learning about the operation of reverse pulse plating for acid copper plating (printed circuit boards). More specifically, the waveform requirements such as reverse and forward current density, forward time, reverse time and even cell voltages. What effects do each of these parameters have? I understand that the wave shape depends on many different factors such as bath chemistry, additives, and topography of the cathode piece. Anyone know of good references to pulse plating or who I may contact for this information? The local university libraries had very little on the topic; it seems to be a research area only. Would contacting appropriate plating suppliers in my country (Australia) be worthwhile?
Adam Seychell- Melbourne, Australia
A. Hi Adam. Platers seem to have a love-hate relationship with pulse plating. Many embraced it early on, expecting it to solve their problems, but found that it added yet another untamed variable to their attempt to get control of their process. If your process is only under questionable control, it will probably make things worse :-(
But if your process is tightly under control, it does have real powers and enables you to do things you otherwise couldn't. While I'm sure that the wave shape can be optimized for particular circumstances, probably the principal thing pulse plating does is agitate and thin the boundary layer for faster plating.
There have been reasonably frequent articles about pulse plating in the journals. I believe Steve Kolzer talks about it currently in his P&SF series. There was a book on pulse plating by Leaman and Puippe, Theory and Practice of Pulse Plating [adv. this book on eBay, Amazon, or AbeBooks] , and there have been a few technical conferences for which copies of proceedings are probably available. Good luck.
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
A. AESF (www.nasf.org) has a link at this site. They have seminars once a year and transcripts are not that expensive. There is a lot of experimenting to achieve the optimum "window" for periodic reverse pulse and for pulse plating. Not many people are willing to share the specifics. They will talk in generalities which make for a good starting point.
James Watts- Navarre, Florida
Q. We have a difference of opinion in our shop about the benefits of forward (only) pulse current on acid copper plating. I don't think forward pulse is any better than a DC that provides the same average current and I haven't found any published reports of its successful application.
We all agree that periodic pulse reverse (PPR) has a potential to help solve some of the current plating problems in high tech circuits, such as throw into blind vias and extremely high aspect ratio holes. There have been many studies published demonstrating this.
Does anyone out there have anything other than opinions to back up the forward (only) pulse argument one way or the other?
Bill Vins
microwave & cable assemblies - Mesa (what a place-a), Arizona
2001
A. Bill
Actually pulse will make the thickness distribution worse than DC when plating on metallic substrates. However it will give a finer grain structure. The situation is different when plating on polyimide or silicon substrates that have been metallized by sputtering or some other vacuum process. Here pulsing is very useful to rapidly build up the metal thickness uniformly over the entire substrate rather than have it be much thicker near the areas where electrical contact is made to the substrate.
Pat Mentone
St Paul, Minnesota
Q. Hello,
Some years ago, a man named Andy Lesko at Tyco, made a series of experiments on pulse plating. His discoveries was published in PCFAB. He came up with a formula into which you could enter factors to obtain a non-discriminating plating on high CD and low CD:s. This formula was very accurate, but I have lost it. If somebody knows it, please respond.
Regards,
Peter Fogelqvistchemist - Orebro, Sweden
2004
Q. I would appreciate people's recommendations on resources to learn about Pulse Electrodeposition.
Preferably ones that will give me a background for terminology and technique and that can be understood by an undergraduate student without much expertise in the field.
Thanks
Research - Wilmington
June 13, 2013
Hi Luke. Although there is nothing wrong with your term "pulse electrodeposition", it seems that 9 out of 10 doctors recommend "pulse plating", so you'll find more info with that search term. We appended your inquiry to one of a dozen threads we have on that subject here, so after scanning this one, you might give the others a quick look. Good luck.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
June 2013
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