I would opt for the immersion gold rather than sputtering.

Sputtering would likely be more costly and involve masking, etc. possibly
leaving exposed edges of copper.

At least with the immersion gold the base metal would be covered up and be
self-limiting in thickness say 0.2-0.3 um.

The one hang-up that I can think of with immersion Au is that I believe it
is tweaked for plating over Ni, and you indicated that you wanted no Ni.
Still think it worthwhile to check with your friendly reliable plater on
this.

Is this one of those units that has probes that the homeowner can push into
the ground a couple inches?


Steve Creswick
Sr Associate - Balanced Enterprise Solutions
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevencreswick
                         616 834 1883



-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ahmad, Syed
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2014 9:10 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] Sputtered gold thickness for copper corrosion protection in
soil

Any suggestion on how thick a sputtered layer of gold on copper terminal is
necessary for corrosion protection? The gold sputtered copper terminals are
to be in contact with soil and probed periodically.

Karen Tellefsen - Electrical Testing
Alpha / 109 Corporate Blvd./ S. Plainfield, NJ 07080 [log in to unmask]
908-791-3069




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