Treatment for electroplating racks to avoid rack metallization
OwnerRoderick D. Herdman, Trevor Pearson +2inventors
InventorsRoderick D. Herdman, Trevor Pearson, Roshan V. Chapaneri, Alison Hyslop
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Abstract
A method of coating an electroplating rack used for supporting non-conductive substrates during a plating process. The method comprises the steps of contacting at least a portion of the electroplating rack with a plastisol composition, the plastisol composition having dispersed therein an effective amount of an additive; and heating the electroplating rack with the plastisol composition thereon to a suitable temperature and for a sufficient time to cure the plastisol and form a solid insulating coating on the electroplating rack. The coated electroplating rack may then be used for mounting non-conductive substrates for subsequent metallization steps.
Claims6
A method of metallizing non-conductive substrates, the method comprising the steps of:
- a) mounting a non-conductive substrate to be metallized on one or more electroplating racks, wherein the one or more electroplating racks are coated with a plastisol composition to form a solid insulating coating on at least a portion of the one or more electroplating racks, the plastisol composition having dispersed therein an effective amount of an additive having the structure:
- wherein R, R′, R″ and R′″ are either the same or are independently selected from C1-C10 alkyl, benzyl, substituted benzyl, phenyl, or substituted phenyl and M is a divalent metal cation, selected from the group consisting of nickel, copper and zinc;
- b) etching the non-conductive substrate mounted on the one or more electroplating racks with an etchant that does not contain chromic acid;
- c) activating the surface of the non-conductive substrate by immersing the one or more electroplating racks with the non-conductive substrate mounted thereon into a solution comprising palladium;
- d) immersing the one or more electroplating racks containing the non-conductive substrate mounted thereon in an electroless metallization bath to electrolessly deposit metal thereon;
- and
- e) electroplating the non-conductive substrate to plate metal thereon,
- wherein the one or more electroplating racks coated with the plastisol composition remain free of the electrolessly deposited metal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.