Metal finishing Q&As since 1989

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What gold thickness is required on PCB tabs?

2007

I want to know the necessary thickness of gold plating on surface of tab connector in case of telecommunications surge/current protector.
Also is it important gold surface by immersion or hard cobalt gold?
I think for hard gold no necessary to be thick.
What is standard thickness for hard gold and immersion gold.

Shanaey
PCB - Tehran, Iran

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2007

Dear Shanaey,

Thickness requirement is as per the product's or your customers specification. It is better to find out what the buyer wants.
Incase you are plating for your own product requirement, you should have to have an idea what is the life of the product you want
And lastly you are plating a noble metal such as gold. You should get the value of it plated on the Product, coupled with the manufacturing cost.
Regards,

T.K. Mohan
plating process supplier - Mumbai, India

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Shanaey,
I agree with TK on contacting the customer to see what thickness is desired. This thickness requirement is normally listed on the print just like board dimension, tolerances, drill hole sizes, copper hole wall thickness, solder mask, legends, etc. If you are plating your own parts the rule of thumb is 50 microinches of hard gold for tab connectors. The reason hard gold is used is because the tab connectors get plugged in to board receptacles (sometimes more than once), so they have to have some wear resistance. Soft immersion gold is not thick enough, and would wear off too quickly when the board gets plugged in.

Mark Baker
Process Engineer - Syracuse, New York
2007