IPC-4552.pdf - 第15页
IPC-4552 Proposal June 2001 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 SS XRF std XRF XRF type Means and Std Deviations Level Number Mean Std Dev Std Err Mean SS XRF 240 2.66542 1.24144 0.08013 std XRF 240 3.08750 1.47084 0.09494 Fig 3: compar ison …

IPC-4552 Proposal June 2001
Nickel Thickness:
Determining the required thickness for the nickel barrier layer was arrived at easily through consensus. From the
input on “normal” plating times being used in the industry a specification range of 120 microinches to 240
microinches was agreed upon. At the 120 lower level it was felt this provided more than enough basis metal to act as
a diffusion barrier to copper migration as well as providing a suitable stable metal to solder to. The concern with
excessively thick nickel was not from a soldering viewpoint rather from the use of the finish for compliant pin and
the increase in insertion force required to overcome the reduction in plated through hole diameter.
Gold Thickness:
The immersion gold thickness was not that straight forward. A series of questions were raised:
• How much gold makes a good nickel solderability preservative?
• How much gold is needed for a minimum shelf life of I year?
• What are the processes out there capable of?
• Is better? Is more gold possible?
• How much gold is needed for “Contact Resistance”?
In an effort to answer these questions the committee designed and executed a series of capability studies. The studies
included:
• A capability study to determine what thickness of gold is the immersion process capable of.
• Solderability analysis by Wetting Balance method to determine the minimum gold thickness that is solderable.
• Solderability after aging.
• Contact Resistance testing using carbon membrane switches.
Round Robin Testing:
The committee has five chemical suppliers of ENIG, for the list of participants. What became apparent early in the
specification writing meetings was the variation in chemical management from the five different suppliers.
A quick round robin test was set up to determine the range of nickel and gold deposits that were achievable by the
five suppliers. The panels for the deposition rate test would also be used for solderability evaluations. All the panels
to be coated with ENIG were supplied from one PWB supplier and would be acid copper plated with no solder
mask. Based on the variations in chemical bath control etc, it was decided to level the playing field by having all the
nickel samples plated in baths at 1 MTO and all the gold baths at 25% of their useable life.
The test would consist of plating a maximum of 10 panels all at the same time in the nickel bath; some vendors
could only do 8 panels due to basket size constraints. They would all be plated at the same time to ensure correct
bath loading so that a statistically significant mean and standard deviation value could be obtained. For the gold
bath, a panel would be removed from the plating bath every two minutes until all of the panels were removed. Since
the gold bath is an immersion bath, the loading factor is not as much of an issue compared to the electroless nickel
bath.
Measuring Gold Thickness:
The ability to accurately measure the ENIG deposit could potentially be a paper/test method document in its own
rights. The thickness of the gold deposit poses some fundamental problems. A number of the committee members
have experienced measurement capability issues with their customers. These have ranged from using the wrong
calibration standards, i.e. using electrolytic Nickel electrolytic Gold standards
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IPC-4552 Proposal June 2001
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
SS XRF std XRF
XRF type
Means and Std Deviations
Level Number Mean Std Dev Std Err Mean
SS XRF 240 2.66542 1.24144 0.08013
std XRF 240 3.08750 1.47084 0.09494
Fig 3: comparison of Gold thickness values by XRF machine type
Fig 4: Wetting Balance coupon
FR4 0.062” thick, acid copper plated
6 X 3 mm SMD pads/side
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IPC-4552 Proposal June 2001
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
vendor D vendor E
vendor
Means and Std Deviations
Level Number Mean Std Dev Std Err Mean
vendor D 300 4.07967 1.59078 0.09184
vendor E 300 2.99307 0.95200 0.05496
Fig 5: Comparison of gold plating thickness variation by vendor for similar bath life conditions
110
120
130
140
150
160
170
180
190
vendor D vendor E
vendor
Means and Std Deviations
Level Number Mean Std Dev Std Err Mean
vendor D 300 159.624 12.9179 0.74581
vendor E 300 133.816 7.6477 0.44154
Fig 6: Comparison of nickel plating thickness variation by vendor for similar bath life conditions
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