Electroplating is a process used to reduce the positively charged ions of a desired material, with the help of an electric current. The process also coats a conductive object with a thin layer of the material, such as a metal. Zinc electroplating is one of the most common forms of electroplating and popular because of its relatively low cost, protective nature and attractive appearance. The coating done through this process gives corrosion protection to ferrous components and it can give colors like gold, black or olive drab finish, by post treatment.
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If you’ve ever purchased inexpensive jewelry with a fine coating of precious metal, then you’ve witnessed the end result of electroplating. It’s an electrochemical reaction used to put a fine metallic coating on an object. Aside from making cheap jewelry, electroplating has important uses in the automotive industry for chrome plating, and in the electronics industry for optics and sensors.
The process of electroplating (also referred to as electrodeposition) is fairly simple. To start, a negative charge is placed on the object that will be coated. The object is then immersed in a salt solution of the metal that will be used to plate the object. From there, it’s simply a matter of attraction; the metallic ions of the salt are positively charged and are thus attracted to the negatively charged object. Once they connect, the positively charged ions revert back to their metallic form again and you have a newly electroplated object.
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Driven by the need for increased speed, portability and wiring density, the interconnect pitch on semiconductor packages, and the corresponding high density interconnect (HDI) substrates, continue to shrink. The combination of filled blind microvias and build-up technology provides a means to achieve the required wiring densities. With the rapid growth of this technology, the use of electrodeposited copper for filling blind microvias has become a widely adopted process for manufacture of both HDI printed circuit boards (PCBs) and also semiconductor package substrates.
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Commercial Electroplating
1. Electroplating is the process of placing a coat of metal on a substrate. Although small applications of electroplating can be used in home workshop or hobby applications, most electroplating is achieved in commercial settings. This has much to do with the size of objects or substrates being electroplated, the size and cost of the machinery needed to fulfill orders from customers and the need for space to accommodate electroplating processes. When the object being electroplated is supplied to the electroplate company 1 million at a time, an additional parameter for volume increases the space needed to complete the business of electroplating.
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Flexible printed circuit boards (FPCs) are applied to various electronic devices due to their mechanical characteristics and are indispensable to electronic devices requiring system miniaturization, weight reduction and multi-functionality. This article describes a new electrolytic copper plating technology which is an essential step in the manufacturing process of FPCs. This new electrolytic copper plating technology improves the manufacturing process and realizes higher functionality.
Application of FPC
FPCs are employed in a wide variety of applications due to the nature of their characteristics. Examples of applications for FPCs include cell-phone liquid crystal display enclosure, hinge parts, keypad, battery enclosure and interface components. FPCs are also used in optical pickup and device interfaces inside hard disk drives, digital still cameras and digital camcorders. Desired performance characteristics are: 1) wiring within small spaces; 2) wiring connection accompanied by mechanical functions within working part/device and motherboard; and 3) high density interconnect resulting from denser and narrower features.
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