Kris,
There is an old British Standard test for measuring porosity of gold on
nickel.
It was designed for electroplated gold thicknesses of 2 microns (0.0001
inches) on electroplated nickel edge connectors so I don't know if it's
relevant to you. If you're interested I'll have a look this weekend to see
if I still have it in the junk pile.

As far as I can remember the test consisted of soaking a piece of blotting
paper in dimethylglyoxime solution placing this over the connectors, passing
a current for a set time and inspecting the paper. Dimethylglyoxime turns
red in the presence of nickel so any pores in the gold will allow nickel
ions to pass through and stain the test paper.
hope this helps
Geoff Layhe
www.lamar-uk.co.uk

-----Original Message-----
From: Kris Keating [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 13 December 2001 19:31
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] porosity of gold plating on nickel


Does anyone know of a fairly simple method of determining porosity of gold
plating over nickel on a PCB?


Kristopher J. Keating
Technical Service Engineer
Circuit-Wise, Inc.
400 Sackett Point Rd.
North Haven, CT 06473
Tel. (203) 281-6511
Fax (203) 287-8409

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