Alternate Finishing

Gold Plate

Gold plating has excellent electrical and thermal conductivity, it also offers exceptional solderability and is a superb reflector of infrared radiation. Alternate Finishing can provide two different types electrolytic gold plate and electroless gold. Each serves a different purpose;

 

Soft Gold

This gold is specified when the assembly operations require wire bonding with gold wire. The purity and hardness of bondable soft gold must be closely monitored and controlled. The hardness must be 90 Knoop (25g load) or less. The purity must be 99.7% or greater to meet Type I requirements and 99.9% or greater to meet Type III requirements.

In the past, a relatively thick deposit was required when wire bonding with gold wire was going to be used. It was often specified at 100 microinches minimum. Advancements in wirebonding equipment and technique now allow bonding to be performed at a thickness as low as 0.3 microns (12 microinches), however most still specify 1.3 microns (50 microinches) minimum.This gold meets the requirements of Mil-G-45204 and Mil-DTL-45204, type III, grade A. It also meets the requirements of ASTM B-488-01, type III , Code A