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Electroplating Nickel-Boron Alloys
Q. I am looking for information regarding the electroplating of Nickel-Boron alloys. I am interested in this for a microelectronics/photovoltaics application. Using a commercially available Ni bath (from Technic, I think) we have successfully plated Ni on top of a seed layer in our devices. Now I need to expand into plating Ni-Boron. I have found a couple literature procedures that call for using various boron additives with a Nickel Watts Bath. The specifics are: Watts bath plus sodium decahydridodecaborate (Na2 B10 H10) in "Metal Finishing, June 1996, pg. 100"; and Watts bath plus dimethylamine borane in "Materials Chemistry and Physics, 2006, 99(2-3), 300." There are also some procedures that use boron particles dispersed in the bath. Any suggestions regarding the operation of a Watts bath and/or boron-containing additives with respect to nickel electroplating would be very helpful.
Travis BenantiMaterials Scientist - State College, Pennsylvania, USA
October 10, 2008
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A. I don't know about electroplating nickel-boron alloys but certainly they can be electroLESS plated. Why would you mind applying a voltage and deal with current distribution when you can just immerse the parts and let the chemistry do the job. How thick do you want to go? Monterrey, NL, Mexico A. EN-B is an expensive process. I would recommend using one of the several vendors of the process and chose by support offered rather than price of a quality product. If you can get one tank turnover more from a proprietary EN vs a home brew EN it will come close to paying for the difference. In a home brew, if you run into a problem, you have to sort out how to permanently fix the problem yourself. Time that it will take will depend on skill, knowledge and luck. Is the lost time worth the savings in chemical cost. - Navarre, Florida |
A. Hi Travis,
Our very knowledgable platers, Guillermo & James, are very familiar with Nickel Boron Electroless plating, but neither they nor I are really very familiar with Nickel Boron Electroplating, and even Brenner's encyclopedic "Electrodeposition of Alloys" doesn't seem to cover it.
The reference you made to boron particles dispersed in the bath probably relates to nickel-boron composite plating, where boron particles are occluded into the nickel plating, rather than dissolved as an alloy.
Can you tell us whether the boron is simply an electrolyte, like chloride, sulfate, and sulfamate, or whether it co-deposits with the nickel and at what percentage? Lacking other input I would assume that the operating parameters are probably pretty similar to Watts nickel plating, and that the references you cited are good ones. But a problem remains that "nickel boron plating" can mean several other things, including nickel plating with occluded boron particles, and electroless nickel from boron-based electrolytes.
Luck & Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
(Ted is available for instant or longterm help)
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