Dear Technetters,

We want to protect silver plated contacts on solar cells from tarnishing by
overplating with a thin layer of gold.

I believe that the gold content of the final solder joint shouldn't exceed
3% (by volume of metal) to avoid embrittlement, but that means our gold
thickness will be 4 microns or less.

Is 4 microns thick enough to provide a non-porous gold layer and prevent the
silver from tarnishing?

Thanks in advance.

Jeff Brown
Research Engineer
Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems

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