• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.89-99
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• 2022

A versatile method for performing non-cyanide electroless gold plating using thiomalic acid (TMA) as a complexing agent and 2-aminoethanethiol (AET) as a reducing agent was investigated. It was found that TMA was an excellent complexing agent for gold. It can be used in electroless gold plating baths at a neutral pH with a high solution stability, makes it a potential candidate to replace conventional toxic cyanide complex. It was found that one gold atomic ion could bind to two TMA molecules to form the [2TMA-Au⁺] complex in a solution. AET can be used as a reducing agent in electroless gold plating solutions. The highest current density was obtained at electrode rotation rate of 250 to 500 rpm based on anodic and cathodic polarization curves with the mixed potential theory. Increasing AET concentration, pH, and temperature significantly increased the anodic polarization current density and shifted the plating potential toward a more negative value. The optimal gold ion concentration to obtain the highest current density was 0.01 M. The cathodic current was higher at a lower pH and a higher temperature. The current density was inversely proportional to TMA concentration.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.102-119
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• 2022

Gold plating is used as a coating of connecter in printed circuit boards, ceramic integrated circuit packages, semiconductor devices and so on, because the film has excellent electric conductivity, solderability and chemical properties such as durability to acid and other chemicals. As increasing the demand for miniaturization of printed circuit boards and downsizing of electronic devices, several types of electroless gold plating solutions have been developed. Most of these conventional gold plating solutions contain cyanide compounds as a complexing agent. The gold film obtained from such baths usually satisfies the requirements for electronic parts mentioned above. However, cyanide bath is highly toxic and it always has some possibility to cause serious problems in working environment or other administrative aspects. The object of this investigation was to develop a cyanide-free electroless gold plating process that assures the high stability of the solution and gives the excellent solderability of the deposited film. The investigation reported herein is intended to establish plating bath composition and plating conditions for electroless gold plating, with thiomalic acid as a complexing agent. At the same time, we have investigated the solution stability against nickel ion and pull strength of solder ball. Furthermore, by examining the characteristics of the plated Au plating film, the problems of the newly developed electroless Au plating solution were improved and the applicability to various industrial fields was examined. New type electroless gold-plating bath which containing thiomalic acid as a complexing agent showing so good solution stability and film properties as cyanide bath. And this bath shows the excellent stability even if the dissolved nickel ion was added from under coated nickel film, which can be used at the neutral pH range.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.170-176
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• 2017

EPIG (Electroless Pd/immersion Au) process was studied to replace ENIG (electroless Ni/immersion Au) and ENEPIG (electroless Ni/electroless Pd/immersion Au) processes for bump surface treatment used in high reliable flip chip packages. The palladium and gold layers formed by EPIG process were uniform with thickness of 125 nm and 34.5 nm, respectively. EPAG (Electroless Pd/autocatalytic Au) also produced even layers of palladium and gold with the thickness of 115 nm and 100 nm. TEM results exhibited that the gold layer in EPIG surface had crystalline structure while the palladium layer was amorphous one. After annealing at 250 nm, XPS analysis indicated that the palladium layer with thickness more than 22~33 nm could act as a diffusion barrier of copper interconnects. As a result of comparing the chip shear strength obtained from ENIG and EPIG surfaces, it was confirmed that the bonding strength was similar each other as 12.337 kg and 12.330 kg, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.142-147
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• 2010

We evaluated characteristics of ENEPIG (Electroless Nickel Electroless Palladium Immersion Gold) surface treatment for mobile equipment that requires high reliability, in addition to investigating surface treatment processes for semiconductor boards that require high reliability such as regular PCB-package systems, board-on-chip, chip-scaled package (CSP), etc and application for semiconductor package board of SIP, BOC. As a result, it appeared that ENEPIG has superior properties compared to ENIG surface treatment in corrosion resistance, solder junction, wetting, etc. We anticipate that these results will be able to lend credibility to ENEPIG as a low-cost alternative for producing mobile devices such as the cell phones, especially when applied to mass production.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.714-719
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• 1996

For the fabrication of the circuits, contact or terminal areas are usually coated with nickel and gold. Usually, diluted palladium solution is applied to initiate electroless nickel plating on the copper circuits. However, the trace amounts of palladium remains on the resin and it causes the extraneous deposition. We confirmed that selectivity was greatly improved by the treatment with the strong reducing agents such as SBH or DMAB. Bondability was greatly influenced by the contents of phosphorus in the deposited nickel. Stabilizers in the electroless gold plating were also influenced the bonding strength. The baths containing cupferron or potassium nickel cyanide as a stabilizer showed superior bondability. The gold deposits having strong orientation with Au(220) and Au(311) showed good bond ability.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.625-628
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• 1999

Recently. high-density printed circuit boards(PCB) become indispensable with the minaturization of components. Nickel is deposited on the copper patterns and followed by the gold deposition for improving connection reliability between the printed circuit boards and electronic components. Conventionally electrodeposition has been applied to metalization of copper patterns. However metalization by this method is not applicable for the isolated fine and concentrated patterns. Therefore, metalization technology of the fine patterns by electroless plating is required in place of electrodeposition. The application of electroless nickel plating for interconnection with solder strongly relies on the solderability and the interactions between nickel and solder. Factors such as phosphorus content of the deposit additive and bath temperature may influence solderability of the electroless nickel deposit. So solderability of electroless nickel/ gold deposits was investigated with substrates plated changing the condition of nickel solution.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.55-61
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• 2010

An impact bending test method was used to evaluate the reliability for the solder joint of lead-free solder ball. In order to standardize the test method, the four point impact bending test was applied under the conditions of various frequencies and amounts of +/-amplitude respectively. Effects on the results were analysed. The optimum condition for impact bending test achieved in this study was the frequency of 10 Hz, and the amplitude of (+12/-1)~(+15/-1). 3 kinds of surface finishes Cu-OSP (Organic Solderability Preservative), ENIG (Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold), and ENEPIG (Electroless Nickel, Electroless Palladium, Immersion Gold) were used. Fracture surface showed that cracks were initiated and fractured along the intermetallic layer in the case of surface finishes of Cu-OSP and ENIG, while in the case of ENEPIG the cracks were initiated and propagated in the solder region.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.63-71
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• 2022

In this study, the interfacial reaction and drop impact reliability of Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) solder and electroless nickel autocatalytic gold (ENAG) were studied. In addition, the solder joint properties with the ENAG surface finish was compared with electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) and electroless nickel electroless palladium immersion gold (ENEPIG). The IMC thickness of SAC/ENAG and SAC/ENEPIG were 1.15 and 1.12 ㎛, respectively, which were similar each other. The IMC thickness of the SAC/ENIG was 2.99 ㎛, which was about two times higher than that of SAC/ENAG. Moreover, it was found that the IMC thickness of the solder joint was affected by the metal turnover (MTO) condition of the electroless Ni(P) plating solution, and it was found that the IMC thickness increased when the MTO increased from 0 to 3. The shear strength of SAC/ENEPIG was the highest, followed by SAC/ENAG and SAC/ENIG. It was found that when the MTO increased, the shear strength was lowered. In terms of brittle fracture, SAC/ENEPIG was the lowest among the three joints, followed by SAC/ENAG and SAC/ENIG. Likewise, it was found that as MTO increased, brittle fracture increased. In the drop impact test, it was confirmed that the 0 MTO condition had a higher average number of failures than the 3 MTO condition, and the average number of failures was also higher in the order of SAC/ENEIG, SAC/ENAG, and SAC/ENIG. As a result of observing the fracture surface after the drop impact, it was found that the fracture was between the IMC and the Ni(P) layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2014.11a
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• pp.77-77
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• 2014

솔더링과 와이어본딩이 가능한 ENEPIG (Electroless Nickel/Electroless Palladium/Immersion Gold) 를 중심으로 미세회로 기판에 적용할 수 있는 표면처리 및 공정 약품을 소개하고자 한다.

• Clean Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.84-89
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• 2013

The running blots between patterns during electroless nickel electroless palladium immersion gold (ENEPIG) surface finish of printed circuit board (PCB) are investigated and a proper solution is presented. Computational chemistry is first employed to understand the process and experiments are then designed to verify the proposed ideas. A $PdCl_2$ activator which has relatively weak chemical bonding to the epoxy resin is introduced to prevent the formation of palladium seeds on the epoxy resin and a couple of operational measures such as increasing HCl concentration and lowering the temperature of Pd activation process are executed to prevent a further hydrolysis of $PdCl_2$ to more stable $Pd(OH)_2$ in aqueous solution. Computational chemistry provides thermodynamic backgrounds for experiments and their results. This combined approach is expected to be very useful in the research of relevant processes.