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Pine Beach, NJ

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Pulse plating of printed circuit boards

Q. I am looking for information concerning pulse plating of printed circuit board. In particular, what are the pulse time / polarity requirements for the reduction in uneven deposition of copper ("dogbone" effect)? Do I need equipment that can just pulse the current or does it need to reverse as well, Can anyone point me to a good tutorial on this topic?

Ron Jackson
- Sydney, NSW, Australia
2000

A. Dear Ron,

You need Pulse reversal units with three times the reverse polarity, i.e., 200 amps forward current with 600 amps reverse current. Timings should be left adjustable with much longer forward times and about 1 ms reverse. Check out Dynatronix for more info.

Regards,

Khozem Vahaanwala
Saify Ind

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

2000

"Theory and Practice of Pulse Plating"

on AbeBooks

or eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

A. Hey Ron,

Yes, you'll need pulse reverse for PC copper plating. A good place to start is at Dynatronix; they have a paper online about "Pulse Periodic Reverse Copper Plating of High Aspect Ratio Holes" by K.J. Whitlaw, ShipleyRonal.

Regards,

Fred Mueller, CEF
- Royersford, Pennsylvania
2000

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