Effect of Plating Additives on Microstructure and Properties of Electrodeposited Ni-Fe Alloy

With the evolving technology, the frame mounted design of electronic components has increasingly become high-density, which leads to the electronic elements that are inevitably vulnerable to electromagnetic interference and then affect other electronic products’ functions. The solution is to use well conductive material that operates the shielding process. The material includes metals and conductive polymers which are common sources of the protective materials in dealing with the main conductive surface. Although this masking method has been widely recognized, several problems are still observed in practice, including the vulnerability to scaling, abrasion, corrosion and process load.

           In this study, we adopt Ni-Fe alloy film as the shielding material and manufacture it by electroplating. We intend to explore the effects of plating solution composition, plating parameter and plating additives on structural strength and magnetic properties of the Ni-Fe alloy film. In electroplating, plating additives play important roles. The results suggest that various additives lead to different crystalline orientations, grain sizes, and surface roughness. A correlation between the plated structure and the magnetic properties is studied. Additionally, anti-corrosion is improved by doping a few boron in the film. The ultimate goal of the study is to meet the requirements of electronic industry in manufacturing Ni-Fe alloy with high permeability and good corrosion resistance.