• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.11d
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• pp.909-911
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• 1999

Metalization technology of the fine patterns by electroless plating is required in place of electrodeposition as high-density printed circuit boards (PCB) become indispensable with the miniaturization of electronic components. Electroless nickel plating is a suitable diffusion barrier between conductor metals, such as Al and Cu, and solder is essetional in electronic packaging in order to sustain a long period of service. Moreover, Electroless nickel has particular characteristics including non-magnetic property, amorphous structure, wear resistance, corrosion protection and thermal stability. In this study fundamental aspects of electroless nickel deposition were studied with effect of complexeing agents of different kinds. Then, the property of electroless deposit are controlled by the composition of the deposition solution, the deposition condition such as temperature and pH value and so on. the characteristics of the deposits has been carried out.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.250-253
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• 2007

An evaporated Ti/Pd/Ag contact system is most widely used to make high-efficiency silicon solar cells, however, the system is not cost effective due to expensive materials and vacuum techniques. Commercial solar cells with screen-printed contacts formed by using Ag paste suffer from a low fill factor and a high shading loss because of high contact resistance and low aspect ratio. Low-cost Ni and Cu metal contacts have been formed by using electroless plating and electroplating techniques to replace the Ti/Pd/Ag and screen-printed Ag contacts. Ni/Cu alloy is plated on a silicon substrate by electro-deposition of the alloy from an acetate electrolyte solution, and nickel-silicide formation at the interface between the silicon and the nickel enhances stability and reduces the contact resistance. It was, therefore, found that nickel-silicide was suitable for high-efficiency solar cell applications. The Ni contact was formed on the front grid pattern by electroless plating followed by anneal ing at $380{\sim}400^{\circ}C$ for $15{\sim}30$ min at $N_{2}$ gas to allow formation of a nickel-silicide in a tube furnace or a rapid thermal processing(RTP) chamber because nickel is transformed to NiSi at $380{\sim}400^{\circ}C$. The Ni plating solution is composed of a mixture of $NiCl_{2}$ as a main nickel source. Cu was electroplated on the Ni layer by using a light induced plating method. The Cu electroplating solution was made up of a commercially available acid sulfate bath and additives to reduce the stress of the copper layer. The Ni/Cu contact was found to be well suited for high-efficiency solar cells and was successfully formed by using electroless plating and electroplating, which are more cost effective than vacuum evaporation. In this paper, we investigated low-cost Ni/Cu contact formation by electroless and electroplating for crystalline silicon solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.105-110
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• 2010

Electroless nickel plating on porous carbon substrate for the application of MCFC electrodes was investigated. Acidic and alkaline bath were used for the electroless nickel plating. The pore sizes of carbon substrates were 16-20 ${\mu}m$ and over 20 ${\mu}m$. The carbon surface was changed from hydrophobic to hydrophilic after immersing the substrate in an ammonia solution for 40 min at $60^{\circ}C$. The contact angle of water was decreased from $85^{\circ}C$ to less than $20^{\circ}$ after ammonia pretreatment. The deposition rate in the alkaline bath was higher than that in the acidic bath. The deposition rate was increased with increasing pH in both acidic and alkaline bath. The content of phosphorous in nickel deposit was decreased with increasing pH in both acidic and alkaline bath. The contents of phosphorous is low in alkaline bath. The minimum concentration of $PdCl_2$ for the electroless nickel plating was 10 ppm in alkaline bath and 5 ppm in acidic bath. The thickness of nickel was not affected by the concentration of $PdCl_2$.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.189-206
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• 1992

The effect of activation and electroless nickel plating conditions on contact properties was investi-gated for selective electroless nickel plating of Si wafers in order to obtain an optimum condition of con-tact hole filling. According to RCA prosess, p-type silicon (100) surface was cleaned out and activated. The effects of temperature, DMAB concentration, time, and strirring were investigated for activation of p-type Si(100) surface. The optimal activation condition was 0.2M HF, 1mM PdCl2, 2mM EDTA,$ 70^{\circ}C$, and 90sec under ultrasonic vibration. In electroless nickel plating, the effect of temperature, DMAB concentra-tion, pH, and plating time were studied. The optimal plating condition found was 0.10M NiSO4.H2O, 0.11M Citrate, pH 6.8, $60^{\circ}C$, 30minutes. The contact resistance of films was comparatively low. It took 30minutes to obtain 1$\mu\textrm{m}$ thick film with 8mM DMAB concentration. The film surface roughness was improved with decreasing temperature and decreasing pH of the plating solution. The best quality of the film was obtained at the condition of temperature $60^{\circ}C$ and pH 6.0. The micro-vickers hardness of film was about 800Hv. Plating rate of nickel on the hole pattern was slower than that of nickel on the line pattern.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.709-713
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• 1996

Mechanical solderless chip packaging with small gold bumps or metal balls has increased in the electronic devices. The preparation of conductive particles (5~7 $\mu\textrm{m}$ diamiter) by electroless nickel plating have been investigated. Generally, batch type electroless plating is applied to provide conductivity on the nonconductors. Since the surface areas of particles are much larger than the bulk substrate, accordingly the electroless plating bath becomes unstable. Thus, we applied the continuous dropping method for the preparation of conductive particles. The uniform coverage of deposited nickel on the particles was obtained by using ammonium acetate as a complexing agent, and surface coverage is further improved without coagulation of particles by the surface active agent treatment before enter the plating bath.

• 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.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.224-232
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• 2004

Ni-diamond composite powders with nickel layer of round-top type on the surface of synthetic diamond (140/170 mesh) were prepared by the electroless plating method (EN) with semi-batch reactor. The effects of nickel concentration, feeding rates of reductant, temperature, reaction time and stirring speeds on the weight percentage and morphology of deposited Ni, mean particle size and specific surface area of the composite powders were investigated by Atomic Adsortion Spectrometer, SEM-EDX, PSA and BET. It was found that nucleated Ni-P islands, acted as catalytic sites for further deposition and grown into these relatively thick layers with nodule-type on the surface of diamond by a lateral growth mechanism. The weight percentage of Ni in the composite powder increased with reaction time, feeding rate of reductant and temperature, but decreased with stirring speed. The weight percentage of Ni in Ni-diamond composite powder was 55% at 150 min., 200 rpm and 7$0^{\circ}C$ .

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.326-334
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• 2004

Deposit charateristics of Electroless nickel(EN) were investigated with various complexing agents. As expected, the deposition rate of nickel is increased with pH and that of Phosphorous is decreased with pH. The result of SEM investigation shows that the rough surface crystallization is appeared with pH. It is show that the surface resistance of EN deposit is decreased with pH at 85$^{\circ}C$.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.385-388
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• 2008

Four kinds of PET fabrics were coated with Copper and Nickel by electroless chemical plating, and the electromagnetic wave shielding effectiveness for those samples have been examined. The shielding effectiveness showed between 90 dB and 70 dB, and it related to the fabric structure, such as cover factor and cloth density. The dense fabric structure showed the better shielding effect.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.83-91
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• 1995

A new method for preparation of thin nickel foam for Ni-MH battery was investigated. In this method, fine graphite powders of $1\mu\textrm{m}$～$2\mu\textrm{m}$ diameter were pasted into pores of thin polyurethane foam film in order to supply electric conducting seeds for nickel deposition by electroless plating reaction. After electroless plating, remaining polyurethane foam was removed chemically by organic solvent treatment and graphite particles also removed by ultrasonic cleaning. Porosity of formed nickel foam was about 85% During electroplating, porosity of the nickel foam decreased less than 5% up to $30\mu\textrm{m}$ coating thickness. And then it was electroplated and heat-treated to improve mechanical strength and ductility. Finally, thin nickel foam for Ni electrode of Ni-MH battery with 80% porosity and $350\mu\textrm{m}$～X$400\mu\textrm{m}$ thickness was obtained.