Alternate Finishing

Gold Plate

 

Electroless Gold

 

Using electroless gold plating, circuits can be etched and plated in their final configuration. This saves steps and allows the circuit design to take priority.

 

The gold deposited is wirebondable and solderable. It is essentialy identical to an electrolytic pure gold deposit according to Mil-DTL-45204 or ASTM B488 type III grade A regarding thickness, hardness and purity. 

 

Electrolytic plating creates deposits that have thickness variations resulting primarily from the shape of the electrical field between the cathode surfaces and the anode. These deposits are thicker on corners and edges and surfaces where the distance to the anode is shortest. They are also thinner in the middle of surfaces, inside of holes and on surfaces facing away from the anode.

 

Electroless plating completely eliminates this source of variation. Electroless gold plated deposits are uniform in thickness around corners, on both sides of a part, even on the inside walls of small holes that may be very deep.