Researchers:
Dr Norashid Aziz
Dr Zahurin Samad
Muhammad Azman Miskam
Siah Choon Hwa
Mohd. Nazri Idris
Spot Electroplater for Lead Frame (SPEL) have been designed to cater to existing problems faced by the rubber masking technique, presently applied in lead frame manufacturing industries. One of the problems is the difficulty to seal the runner mould with lead frames by uniform compression pressure. This causes non-uniforms deposit on lead frame. Consequently this cause inaccurate plating on lead frame.
The problems can be solved or reduced by implementing a technique that can act like a printer to draw any shape of silver plating area. This approach needs a technique which can produce spot plating, Uniform SPEL was invented which can plate a small area (as small as 1 mm in diameter).
In SPEL, the electrolyte is continuous impingement to the substrate through a nozzle. The substrate (cathode) is connected to negative terminal and the nozzle (anode) is connected to positive terminal of the power supply. During the electrolyte impingement to the substrate, the current is supplied to the system.
Hence, plating will occur and the nozzle outlet will determine the plating size. As a result, a 1 mm diameter circular spot of silver plating can be produced on a copper plate using 1 mm diameter nozzle, 0.05 A current, inlet and outlet pump speed at 10 and 70 rpm respectively in 2.5 second plating time. SPEL is an environmental friendly technique as the usage of syanide is minimal
For more information, contact
Dr Norashid Aziz
(Contact details available to registered journalists)
