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CARBON BLACK DISPERSION PRE-PLATING TECHNOLOGY FOR PRINTED WIRE BOARD MANUFACTURING
Citation:
CARBON BLACK DISPERSION PRE-PLATING TECHNOLOGY FOR PRINTED WIRE BOARD MANUFACTURING. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/R-93/201.
Description:
This project compared chemical use, waste generation, cost, and product quality between electroless copper and carbon-black-based preplating technologies at the printed wire board (PWB). manufacturing facility of McCurdy Circuits in Orange, CA. he carbon-black based preplating technology evaluated is used as an alternative process for electroless copper (EC) plating of through-holes before electrolytic copper plating. he specific process used at McCurdy is the BlackHole TM*(BH) technology process, which uses a dispersion of carbon black in an aqueous solution to provide a conductive surface for subsequent electrolytic copper plating. he carbon-black dispersion technology provided effective waste reduction and long-term cost savings. he economic analysis determined that the new process was cost efficient because chemical use was reduced and the process proved more efficient; the payback period was less than 4 yr. cCurdy found that the product quality achieved was equal to that achieved with EC plating. hus, the newcarbon black dispersion process was found to be a viable alternative to EC.