greetings all

I am having difficulty with successful production of heavy deposit gold
[30-35 micro-inches] of wire-bondable soft gold, since Aurelon shut down
their Ni-Au operation.  My customer is currently bonding aluminum wire, but
desires to go to gold wire.

Problems have been:
1.	Peeling nickel from copper [resolved]
2.	Peeling gold from nickel [mostly resolved]
3.	Spotting and discoloration [solved by better rinsing]
4.	Texture on gold surface; following the pattern of the tarnish after
soldermask and nomenclature oven curing [better after micro-etching before
Ni-Au plating]
5.	Entrapment of conductive chemistries/metals under the developed edges of
Probimer LPI soldermask 
6.	Marginal peel strength
7.	I don't know what is comming next!

My process is:
Panel plate
Tent and etch [cupric chloride]
LPI application, now Probimer 52 [but not for long]
Nomenclature application, Hy-sol Cat-L-Ink [legend]
Immersion/auto-catalytic gold, 30-35 micro-in. [applied by sub-contractor]
NC rout
Ship
[and currently] Receive trash and rejections

Can anyone advise me of good combinations of LPI soldermask and Ni-Au
chemistries / processes.  
I don't plate, so I need a contract supplier of Ni-Au plating services, in
the So-Cal area? . . . or in No-America as my second choice.

Direct responses can be sent to :
Russell Ruff at The Circuit Tree [NOT THE MAGAZINE!]
818-303-4648
email [log in to unmask]

or to all here at the IPC TechNet forum.

Thanks,
Russell

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