Reverse Pulse Plating with LPKF MiniContac III and Contac III

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May 2002

More production reliability in the laboratory
LPKF Contac III and MiniContac III through-plating systems with reverse pulse plating for the first time

Munich, November 2002 - With the reverse pulse plating upgrade for the Contac III and MiniContac III galvanic through-plating systems, LPKF is setting a benchmark for production reliability in Rapid PCB Prototyping. Reverse pulse plating is the secret behind uniform copper coating in the drill hole walls to prevent the formation of the typical bone effect − the formation of thicker walls at the top and the bottom of the hole during metal coating.

This considerably improves the ability to plate high aspect ratio holes and enables the reduction of drill hole diameters in standard printed circuit boards of 0.2 mm. This in turn allows a considerable improvement in assembly density on the circuit board as well as a major improvement in production reliability during the soldering process in particular.

Reverse pulse plating is achieved by special LPKF control electronics which monitors the whole through-plating process and ablates excess material by the precise control of reverse pulses. Integrated in the Contact III and MiniContac III models, this technology is used for the first time in prototype production.

Contac III and MiniContac III are parts of the co-ordinated LPKF product line for Rapid PCB Prototyping. Combined with an LPKF circuit board plotter and the LPKF multilayer press, Contac III and MiniContac III enable the production of circuit boards with up to
8-layer multilayers without the use of external service companies. These multilayer circuit boards are indistinguishable from production boards using galvanic processes.

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