ATLANTA SMTA EVENTS

Topic: ENEPIG Ni/Pd/Gold Finish: The Time Has Come.

Speaker: George Milad

The RoHS requirements of pb-free have made it necessary once again to revisit all available surface finish options. Most existing surface finishes transitioned reasonably well into RoHS-compliant assembly. Electroless Nickel/electroless Palladium/immersion gold ENEPIG has again come under close scrutiny, as the industry evaluated its capabilities using Pb-free assembly conditions. ENEPIG was unique in the fact that it formed a robust, higher strength solder joint with SAC 305 LF alloy, as compared to the solder joint formed with eutectic solder.

Electroless Nickel/electroless Palladium/immersion gold ENEPIG is sometimes referred to as the universal finish because of the versatility of its applications. ENEPIG is suitable for soldering, gold wire bonding, aluminum wire bonding, and contact resistance. ENEPIG is formed by the sequential deposition of electroless Ni (120 – 240 micro inches) followed by 4 – 8 micro inches of electroless Pd with an immersion gold flash (1 – 2 micro inches) on top.

Figure 1 is a series of SEM micrographs of the IMC formed as a function of thermal aging. On the left we have ENIG and ENEPIG with eutectic solder at zero (as soldered), and after 300 and 1000 hours, respectively. In contrast, on the right are the respective IMCs using SAC 305.

George Milad has 30 years of experience in PWB manufacturing. He is the national accounts manager for technology at Uyemura International Corp. Other positions held: technical marketing manager at RHEM, director of applications at Atotech, and engineering manager at Automata PWB.
He is the author of the chapters on plating and surface finishing in Clyde Coomb’s Printed Circuit handbook Fifth Edition, 2001.
He is the recipient of the IPC 2009 President’s award. He presently chairs the Plating Committee and is a permanent member of the Technical Activities Executive Committee of IPC.


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