What is ENIG plating PCB?
The ENIG (Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold) plating is mainly done on PCBs that contain many copper pads. The PCB boards are mainly used to supply electricity to various electronic components that are connected with them. The full form of PCB is (Printed Circuit Board). The ENIG PCB plating comes with two layers of complete metallic coating. On the very first layer of copper pads, which are on PCB, there is a coating of Nickel, and on that coating, there is also a thin layer of Gold.
The ENIG plating is mainly done on the outermost layer of these copper pads as the ENIG plating gives very excellent electrical conductivity to the PCB board. They also help in providing better resistance to oxidation. As ENIG plating is RoHS compliant, most of the customers use this plating even knowing that it is inexplicable and costly if compared to any other kind of plating. The required temperature to do ENIG plating on PCB boards is 80 degrees Celsius.
Top advantages of ENIG PCB plating:
Procedure of ENIG is effortless:
This is the best advantage of ENIG plating because the process structure of ENIG is very easy if directly compared to any other plating which is done on the copper pads of PCBs. The finishing done on ENIG PCB is completed by a natural process which is done by the machines.
Best quality of plating:
The other significant advantage of the ENIG PCB is the quality of the ENIG plating is the best if we compare them to any other PCB plating like HASL and ENEPIG. The reason behind this great quality is the metals that are used during the coating. For example, the Nickel acts as a barrier for the copper pads, and the Gold on the outer layer provides great protection to the Nickel during high contact resistance.
ENIG does not require electroplating:
Unlike any other PCB plating, the ENIG does not require electroplating. The ENIG is very popular because of its corrosion-resistant quality. The reason behind being the only corrosion-resistant plating is that it uses Gold on its outer layer, which protects them from corrosion and also cancels the requirement of electroplating.
Many plating comes with a tag of corrosion-free plating without using gold coating on their outer layer. Any plating which doesn’t come with the gold thin layer coating on its outer layer cannot be corrosion resistant plating at all
The ENIG PCB is lead-free:
Another important advantage of the ENIG PCB is that it is lead-free. Most of the PCB contains lead on their outer part, which gets exposed to many harmful chemicals when they are used on the surface. But in the ENIG PCB, no lead is exposed on the outer surface, and that’s the main reason for their durability.
Long period guaranteed durability:
Most ENIG PCBs come with a long-life guarantee that lasts until 12 months or 10 months. PCB comes with a 12 to 10 months guarantee means they are made with good products. The materials, metals, and some features of ENIG make it the best durable plating for PCBs.
Every customer knows that the ENIG PCBs are very expensive as compared to other PCBs, but they still use this PCB because they know that the ENIG plating always uses good materials, and their chance of detecting PCBs is significantly less.
Drawbacks of ENIG plating:
Most expensive PCB plating:
The ENIG PCB plating is one the best plating for copper bands on PCB. But to give great quality and the best features, the cost of this ENIG PCB gets very high compared to other PCB plating. And sometimes, due to its high cost, most of the customers don’t buy them, and they go with little low-grade PCB plating. But still, the selling of ENIG PCB plating is not too less than other PCBs.
Problems during repairing time:
The ENIG PCB plating is the best, but in some cases, these PCBs come with slight defects in their scarce products. So, it becomes challenging for the engineers to repair them because the ENIG PCB plating is made entirely through machines. As a result, they melt the coating at very high temperatures causing difficulties during their repair. And sometimes those PCBs don’t get repaired, and the customer has to go with the new PCBs.
Complication in its process:
The major disadvantage of the ENIG plating is the complication during its manufacturing process. The other plating has a less complicated process than the ENIG plating on PCB. They make their PCB with the help of machines only, which causes enormous problems if the machines are not appropriately set while other Platings do not use the machine for their entire manufacturing process.
Thermal Shock:
The ENIG plating cannot prevent the thermal shocks in the PCB. The thermal shock directly melts the outer covering of the PCB, which is made by using Gold. And once the gold plating gets melted, the copper comes in contact with the Nickel leading to some defects in the PCB.
And the repairing of ENIG plating PCBs is very difficult because they are built only by machines. And they melt all the coating at a high temperature which creates difficulties while removing them.
Conclusion:
The ENIG PCB plating is one of the best plating available in the market. However, it has very few drawbacks, and the quality of the ENIG PCB is also excellent. If the customers want to go with the good quality of PCB, they should always choose the ENIG PCB compared to any other PCBs available. The cost of this PCB is high, but it is not a drawback because they use the best quality materials, which come with a more extended period of warranty. Hence, going for a price higher is worth it. Thus now that you have a detailed idea of what ENIG PCB Plating is, it is time to invest in the right product and make your best buy.
Also read:-
- Teflon PCB Manufacturer
- Application and Use of PCBs
- Top Electronic Manufacturing Companies in the USA
