Low Temperature Soldering Surface-Mount Electronic Components with Hydrogen Assisted Copper Electroplating
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MRS Advances © 2017 Materials Research Society DOI: 10.1557/adv.2017.641
Low Temperature Soldering Surface-Mount Electronic Components with Hydrogen Assisted Copper Electroplating Sabrina M. Rosa-Ortiz1, Kishore Kumar Kadari1, Arash Takshi1 1
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, U.S.A.
ABSTRACT
Copper growth for the development of electroplating technique as a low-temperature soldering procedure represents a useful method for the formation of metal deposits, allowing modification of the thickness and morphology of the soldering joints. The approach is particularly useful for soldering electronic components to a plastic 3D printed substrate. To accelerate the soldering process hydrogen assisted electroplating (HAE) method was employed at room temperature. The experiments were designed by making a small electrochemical cell around the gap on a printed circuit board (PCB) or a 3D printed conductive track. During the experiment, water electrolysis was observed, which released hydrogen bubbles. The hydrogen bubbles caused the structure of the electroplated layer to be more porous, but with a similar conductivity as solid copper and a remarkable mechanical strength suitable for use as interconnects on an electronic circuit. Our electrochemical data and video recorded images show a fast and reliable copper electrodeposition in less than 1 minute. The morphology of copper deposits on a 3D printed structure was studied with the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A reliable soldering process was demonstrated for a surface mount light emitting diode (LED) on a PCB. Further experiments are required to optimize the soldering process for faster and more reliable electroplating, particularly for 3D printed substrates.
INTRODUCTION Technology is always in the need of improvement in order to develop new devices and enhance procedures. With the recent development in 3D printings, fast and in-house prototyping of mechanical structures has become feasible [1]. However, electronic circuit’s prototyping is still required advanced facilities for lithography of PCBs and automated pick-and-place machines for soldering surface mount electronic components. Several approaches have been demonstrated before for using a printing technique for prototyping electronic circuits [2,3]. The most common method is the inkjet printing for making a PCB using conductive inks made of silver or copper nanoparticles [4]. After printing, the substrate has to be heated up to remove the solvents and melt the nanoparticles to form continuous conductive tracks. The approach has several technical challenges which limit its application to only simple circuits. For instance, the substrate has to be flat and smooth and being made of materials with high melting temperatures. Majority of 3D printing methods use plastics with low melting
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