Immersion silver plating

Immersion silver plating (or IAg plating) is a surface plating process that creates a thin layer of silver over copper objects. It consists in dipping the object briefly into a solution containing silver ions.

Immersion silver plating is used by the electronics industry in manufacture of printed circuit boards (PCBs), to protect copper conductors from oxidation and improve solderability.^{[citation needed]}

Advantages

Immersion silver coatings have excellent surface planarity, compared to more traditional coating processes such as hot air solder leveling (HASL). They also have low losses in high-frequency applications due to the skin effect.

Disadvantages

On the other hand, silver coatings will degrade over time due to oxidation or air contaminants such as sulfur compounds and chlorine. A problem peculiar to silver coatings is the formation of silver whiskers under electric fields, which may short out components.^[1]

Specifications

IPC Standard: IPC-4553

References

↑ Slocum, Dan Jr. (2003-09-25). "Surface Finishes Utilized in the PCB Industry" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-11-05. Retrieved 2018-11-15.

External links

PCB Assembly

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[sloc2018-1] Slocum, Dan Jr. (2003-09-25). "Surface Finishes Utilized in the PCB Industry" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-11-05. Retrieved 2018-11-15.

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