Hoechst Ceramtec Aktiengesellschaft

Jurgen Brandenburger

Rudolf Roll

Horst Hempel

In a process for plating pin grid arrays (PGAs), the pins of the PGA are prebent in a prebending jig and then clipped onto a receiving jig for PGAs. At the same time, an electrical short-circuit is produced over all the pins by means of round or wedge-shaped bars or by means of metal pegs which are clamped between at least two pins. The metal pegs or bars are mounted on a metal plate arranged as far as possible at right angles to the pins. The receiving jig with a PGA mounted on it is mounted in an electrically conducting manner on an electroplating rack, connected to the cathode and immersed in an electroplating bath. After deposition of metal on the electrically conducting areas making contact with the spacing between two adjacent rows of pins on the PGA. There should be at least enough bars present to make contact with all the pins of the PGA.

Process and jig for plating pin grid arrays

To electrolessly depositing nickel on tungsten surfaces or molybdenum surfaces which have been deposited on surfaces of ceramic bodies, the ceramic bodies are nucleated, preferably after thorough cleaning, for example with aqueous hydrofluoric acid, by immersion in an aqueous solution containing palladium ions and then introduced into an electroless nickel-plating bath. Before the nickel-plating, the nucleated ceramic bodies are treated in a bath containing a complexing agent for palladium ions, for example in an aqueous cyanide solution.

Process for electrolessly depositing nickel

A receiving jig for PGAs comprises a rectangular base-plate made of a corrosion-resistant metal which has at least one hole. The lengths of the edges of the base-plate have at least the dimensions of the PGA housing. Arranged on the metal baseplate are bars parallel to the surface at equidistant spacings and the height of the bars above the baseplate is at least half the length of the pins of the PGAs. The spacing between two bars on the surface of the baseplate corresponds to twice the spacing between two adjacent rows of pins on the PGA. There should be at least enough bars present to make contact with all the pins of the PGA.

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Selb, Germany

Jurgen Brandenburger