Treatment Methods And Solutions For Improving Adhesion Of Gold Electroplating On Metal Surfaces
AssigneeHutchinson Technology Incorporated
InventorsPaul V. Pesavento, Collin M. Grove, Douglas P. Riemer
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Abstract
Treatment solutions and methods for improving adhesion of gold electroplating onto metal surfaces are provided herein. More specifically, the disclosure relates to micro-etching stainless steel surfaces using to remove any organic contamination and chromium oxide formed on the surface, neutralize and strip the surface of any iron content, and repassivate the surface with a thin chromium oxide layer, prior to gold electroplating of the stainless steel surfaces.
Claims18
A method of treating stainless steel surfaces, comprising:
- etching at least a portion of one or more stainless steel surfaces with an etchant solution comprised of potassium permanganate (KMnO4) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH);
- and
- subsequently neutralizing the at least portion of one or more stainless steel surfaces with a neutralizer solution comprised of ascorbic acid and citric acid.
A method of electroplating gold onto a stainless steel surface, the method comprising:
- treating at least a portion of one or more surfaces of stainless steel by exposing the stainless steel surface to a solution comprising potassium permanganate (KMnO4) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH);
- subsequently neutralizing the portion of one or more surfaces of stainless steel by exposing the stainless steel surface to a solution comprised of ascorbic acid and citric acid;
- exposing the portion of one or more surfaces of stainless steel to an oxygen plasma cleaning process and a wet cleaning process solution;
- immersing the stainless steel in a gold electroplating solution;
- and
- applying a voltage between an anode within the gold electroplating solution and the stainless steel surface to generate a current from the anode to the stainless steel surface to electroplate gold from the gold electroplating solution onto the stainless steel surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.