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Thin Palladium Layers: An Effective Cost-saving Strategy
September 17, 2013 |Estimated reading time: 1 minute
Since 2008, financial market turbulence resulting in severe consequences for economic growth has caused an unprecedented increase in gold prices. Other precious metals such as silver or palladium have also experienced price increases, but the gold price gap has increased significantly. Today, the palladium price is approximately 35 to 40% of gold, with platinum just below and now losing its position as the most expensive precious metal.
Palladium provides a highly-active catalyst surface for chemical reactions and the majority of its applications are found in the automotive and electronics industries. Other uses include hydrogen reserve (e.g., for fuel cells) and also medical engineering. Palladium has further gained importance in the course of conversion to more sustainable products as it provides a non-allergenic alternative to nickel as used in decorative and technical applications. Palladium has also played a much more important role in the electronics industry since the July 2006 EU standard 2002/945/EC came into effect, regarding restricting the use of hazardous substances.
As a result of the high and volatile precious metal prices, further optimisation of palladium coatings for their respective applications is needed to maintain the same function at minimum thickness.
Palladium is used in the lead frame industry as part of a whisker-free coating system (e.g., Ni/Pd/Au pre-plated lead frames), replacing both tin and silver, providing ultra-thin deposition of 20 to 50nm.
These technical applications require excellent reliability, linearity of deposition rates and characteristics, lowest porosity, and highest corrosion resistance for minimum thickness. However, as a real alternative to nickel, this system has to provide an effective diffusion barrier layer with low porosity whilst ensuring excellent corrosion and abrasion resistance properties. Palladium is already being tested and used as an alternative to nickel for allergenic applications such as jewellery and mobile phone covers. Read the full article here.Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the August 2013 issue of SMT Magazine.