The Printed Circuit Board (PCB/PWB) industry has to cope with ongoing miniaturisation, short delivery times and reduced margins. This means that more complex boards need to be produced at lower cost and improved quality. An important cost factor during production is the yield. One of the most critical processes that influence the yield is the electrodeposition of copper, both on the surface and in the through-holes/vias. The plating process needs to deposit a minimum amount of copper in all through-holes, regardless of the aspect ratio, while on the other hand not to overplate the surface of the board. In many high-end applications both panel and pattern plating is used to achieve the required specifications.
Elsyca developed the dedicated simulation tool SmartPlate to predict the plated deposit thickness on PCB/PWB’s taking all relevant phenomena into account. Using this software solution, producers can change process parameters or PCB/PWB layout design to ensure maximum yield with increased throughput. Additionally, Elsyca has developed a fully automated intelligent tooling and plating cell configuration (Elsyca IntelliTool) to optimise the layer thickness uniformity regardless of the PCB/PWB layout and aspect ratios of the through-holes.
On the other hand, Elsyca’s Advanced Engineering Services team assists in analyzing and optimizing the complete electroplating process making use of the powerful combination of our engineering expertise and computational modeling technology.
On top of the range of advanced engineering services, Elsyca has substantial experience in assisting manufacturers to implement and refine the use of pulse plating for many different PCB/PWB applications. To increase the deposition rate and improve the plating uniformity many PCB manufacturers are investigating pulse plating. However, no standard approach exists to determine the optimal pulse signal depending on the pattern and aspect ratio of the through-holes. Additionally the stability and repeatability of the process can be cumbersome.