Ramon: I think we are both saying the same thing... Rudy Sedlak "Dehoyos, Ramon" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Rudy: Electrons will move from Cathode to Anode. The "holes" (atoms missing electrons) move in the opposite direction. The solution has positive ion charge metal atoms that are attracted to the cathode and turn into solid metal by absorbing electrons from the cathode.and thus plating the base metal attached to the cathode. See http://www.finishing.com/faqs/howworks.html for a longer electrical descriptive account. Regards, Ramon ________________________________ From: R Sedlak [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 12:55 PM To: TechNet E-Mail Forum; Dehoyos, Ramon Subject: Re: [TN] electroless gold thickness' Ramon: In the world I inhabit, the work being plated is nominally defined as being the cathode.... At this site, the ions in solution, which are positively charged, are converted to metal by adding electrons... This may be in violation of other conventions, or not, I am not sure, but in the world of electroplating, the cathode receives electrons pumped from the anode, and feeds them to the positively charged ions, to convert them... I do not try to understand these things, I just report the news... Have a good weekend. Rudy Sedlak "Dehoyos, Ramon" wrote: The electron source is the cathode (negative polarity, excess electrons) and the receiving end is the anode ( positive polarity, missing electrons). Ramon -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of R Sedlak Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 6:26 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] electroless gold thickness' Cheryl: Plating from solutions involves transfering electrons to ions floating in solution, converting them to metals, hopefully on the surface we want. There are three kinds of plating from solutions... immersion plating electroless plating electrolytic plating The three different methods differ in the source of the electrons... In immersion plating, some of the substrate dissolves, releasing electrons, which cause the metal in solution to plate out. This kind of plating is self-limiting, when the substrate material gets covered, plating stops. This is why you cannot get gold over about 0.25 micron in IMMERSION gold. In electroless plating, another chemical in solution donates electrons to the metal ions in solution, causing them to plate out. There is theoretically no limit to the thickness you can achieve using electroless plating... thus achieving 0.5 micron gold can be done with ELECTROLESS gold. And for the record, the rectifier, also known as the "electron pump", pumps electrons from the anode to the cathode in electrolytic plating. Rudy Sedlak RD Chemical Company Cheryl Johnson wrote: I believe I have seen this somewhere, and have tried searching the archives, but am having trouble finding it. Does anyone know of any processes for electroless gold that can obtain > .5 micron thickness (without needing bus bars?) Or any way to get > .5 micron gold on a flex without bus bars? Thank you! 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