Metalize - equipamento para metalização de substratos em placas de circuito impresso

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is the project and construction of an experimental arrangement to perform the electrodeposition of thin metallic layers on conductive surfaces. The equipment consists of a voltage source designed to operate on the continuous and pulsed modes, installed inside a cabinet equipped with exhaust system. The electrical tests have shown that in continuous mode, the source has an output voltage ranging from 1.3 V to 12 V, whereas in pulsed mode the average values of the measured voltages increase with the increasing of the duty cycle. The thin film electrodeposition processes showed the good functioning of the equipment. The equipment had deposition rates of 3.63 nm per minute for when operating in continuous mode and 5.16 nm per minute when operating in the pulsed mode with a 99.97% duty cycle. Two electronic circuits, an instrumentation amplifier and a high pass filter were projected, built and tested electronically in order to prove the functionality of the equipment developed. The electrodeposition equipment proved to be efficient when the film deposition processes were analyzed in relation to substrates used in printed circuit boards, in both continuous and pulsed modes. The performance of the experimental arrangement demonstrated a feasibility of replacing commercial sources with a less robust method, projected and specifically developed for use in metallization processes.