Electroless nickel plating: Bath control

Abstract

in this paper, bath control is proposed for the electroless nickel plating through holes board process. The main parameters of the product (board) - thickness of the plating film and phosphorous content - are stabilized at constant levels using optimal tracking control. The set point for control is calculated from the model in dependence on the current state of the process. The pH-index and nickel percentage are stabilised at time-variable set points using simple feed-forward PI-control that is robust to the loading perturbation. Copyright © 2005 IFAC.