Atotech’s Economic Activator Neoganth 800

Citation

(2013), "Atotech’s Economic Activator Neoganth 800", Circuit World, Vol. 39 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/cw.2013.21739cad.006

Atotech’s Economic Activator Neoganth 800

Article Type: New products From: Circuit World, Volume 39, Issue 3

A major challenge for the PCB industry is to overcome the dependency on palladium spot prices by reducing the palladium content in the manufacturing process.

Atotech’s business technology team for Plating Through Holes (PTH) developed a new and highly efficient activator and introduced it to the market in June 2012: Neoganth 800.

The new activator leads to less palladium consumption and thereby significantly reduces running costs.

Benefits of Neoganth 800

“Neoganth 800 is an activator for horizontal multi layer and HDI applications. It significantly reduces running costs since it consumes less palladium per produced m²,” states Lars-Eric Pribyl, Global Product Manager PTH at Atotech Germany GmbH in Berlin, Germany. “This ionic activator is fully compatible with Atotech’s existing conditioning concepts and therefore is a simple drop-in solution for all existing Uniplate LB lines.”

Highlights of this new activator include:

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  High cost-efficiency due to a significantly reduced palladium concentration of only 75 ppm and low consumption per m².

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  Same excellent coverage on all relevant base materials as standard activator Neoganth U.

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  Enhanced bath life and stability due to improved complexing concept and reduced carbonate formation.

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  Easier handling, since no separate sodium hydroxide dosing is required.

Successful Beta Site test

The beta site test of Activator 800 was conducted in early 2012 in a Uniplate P/LB mass production line at a customer in South China. The test plan included, amongst others:

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  Coverage on four different base materials (NP 140, IT 158, R 1755 C, IS 410).

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  Solder shock test (10s 3x dip and 10s 6x float at 288°C).

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  Interconnection Stress Test (IST, 2,000 cycles).

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  Bath performance & stability checks for a full lifetime (100 m² per liter) under mass production conditions.

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  Fine tuning of dosing concept.

The main benefit to customers is clearly the potentially massive saving in palladium consumption, which leads to significant savings in production running costs.