• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.460-468
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• 2022

Due to its high electrical conductivity, low contact resistance, good weldability and high corrosion resi-stance, gold is widely used in electronic components such as connectors and printed circuit boards (PCB). Gold ion salts currently used in gold plating are largely cyan-based salts and non-cyanic salts. The cya-nide bath can be used for both high and low hardness, but the non-cyanide bath can be used for low hardness plating. Potassium gold cyanide (KAu(CN)₂) as a cyanide type and sodium gold sulfite (Na₃[Au(SO)₃]₂) salt as a non-cyanide type are most widely used. Although the cyan bath has excellent performance in plating, potassium gold cyanide (KAu(CN)₂) used in the cyan bath is classified as a poison and a toxic substance and has strong toxicity, which tends to damage the positive photoresist film and make it difficult to form a straight side-wall. There is a need to supplement this. Therefore, it is intended to supplement this with an eco-friendly process using sodium sulfite sodium salt that does not contain cyan. Therefore, the main goal is to form a gold plating layer with a controllable hardness using a non-cyanide gold plating solution. In this study, the composition of a non-cyanide gold plating solution that maintains hardness even after annealing is generated through gold-palladium alloying by adding thallium, a crystal regulator among electrolysis factors affecting the structure and hardness, and changes in plating layer structure and crystallinity before and after annealing the correlation with the hardness.

• 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 Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.115-124
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• 2014

In order to leach Au and Ag from gold-silver bearing sulfide concentrate, the sulfide concentrate was ground in a ball mill for a dry pre-treatment and a wet pre-treatment process. Mineralogical studies and thiourea leaching experiments were carried out with the pre-treated sulfide concentrate. The results of the pre-treatment with the concentrate samples showed the mean particle size and iso-electrical potential was smaller in the dry pre-treatment sample than in the concentrate sample, and the contents was lower in the wet pre-treatment sample than in the dry pre-treatment sample. In XRD analysis, amorphous properties were only shown in the wet pretreatment sample. The results of the concentrate sample leaching experiments showed that the best Au, Ag leaching parameters were when the addition of thiourea was at a 1.0 g concentration, ferric sulfate was 1.0 M, sulfuric acid was 2.0 M and the leaching temperature was at $60^{\circ}C$. The Au, Ag leaching rate was always much greater and faster with the wet pre-treatment samples than with the dry pre-treatment samples. Accordingly, it is expected that more Au, Ag can be leached in an eco-friendly methodology using wet pre-treatment. The pre-treatment could be improved with an optimized grinding additive reagent and through researching grinding time in future non-cyanide processes.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 2015

Cyanide can be leached out from the cyanidation method which has been used to extract high-purity gold and silver from ores, and it becomes a variety of cyanide complexes associated with heavy metals contained in ores. Such cyanide complexes are considered as persistent and non-degradable pollutants which cause adverse effects on humans and surrounding environments. Based on binding force between heavy metals and cyanide, cyanide complexes can be categorized weak acid dissociable (WAD) and strong acid dissociable (SAD). This study comparatively evaluated the performance of photo-catalytic process with regard to forms of cyanide complexes. In particular, both effects of UV LED wavelength and surface modification of photo-catalyst on the removal efficiency of cyanide complexes were investigated in detail. The results indicate that the performance of photo-catalytic oxidation is significantly affected by the form of cyanide complexes. In addition, the effect of UV LED wavelength on the removal efficiency was quite different between free cyanide and cyanide complexes associated with heavy metals. The results support that the surface modification of photo-catalyst, such as doping can improve overall performance of photo-catalytic oxidation of cyanide complexes.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.77-84
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• 2006

Surface roughness and wafer-level thickness distribution of the non-cyanide Au bumps were characterized with variations of the electroplating current density and the bath temperature. The Au bumps, electroplated at $3mA/cm^{2}\;and\;5mA/cm^{2}$, exhibited the surface roughness of $80{\sim}100nm$ without depending on the bath temperature of $40^{\circ}C\;and\;60^{\circ}C$. The Au bumps, electroplated with $8mA/cm^{2}$ at $40^{\circ}C\;and60^{\circ}C$, exhibited the surface roughness of 800nm and $80{\sim}100nm$, respectively. Wafer-level thickness deviation of the Au bumps became larger with increasing the current density from $3mA/cm^{2}\;to\;8mA/cm^{2}$. More uniform thickness distribution of the Au bumps was obtained at a bath temperature of $60^{\circ}C$ than that of $40^{\circ}C$.