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US 5,484,626 AGranted
Methods and apparatus for maintaining electroless plating solutions
AssigneeShipley Company, L.L.C.
InventorsDonald E. Storjohann, Sven J. Wiberg
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus for controlling plating rates of electroless plating solutions. The invention provides for continuous monitoring and replenishment of a one or more components of an electroless plating solution on a real time basis. The invention can be characterized in part by use of a quartz crystal microbalance.
Claims13
A process for maintaining the plating rate of an electroless plating solution essentially constant, said process comprising the steps of:
- providing an electroless plating solution and operating said plating solution at a desired plating rate,
- monitoring the plating rate of said plating solution by means of plating metal from said plating solution onto the quartz crystal element of a quartz crystal microbalance, the quartz crystal microbalance providing an input representing the plating rate to a computer, and supplying an output from the computer to maintain the plating rate at a desired essentially constant value by controlling the addition of at least one plating solution component to the plating solution.
A system suitable for monitoring the plating rate of an electroless plating solution, comprising:
- a volume of an electroless plating solution, a quartz crystal microbalance in communication with said plating solution;
- and
- means responsive to said quartz crystal microbalance for replenishing one or more components of the plating solution.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.