Galvanic corrosion of Cu coupled to Au on a print circuit board; Effects of pretreatment solution and etchant concentration in organic solderability preservatives soft etching solution

Abstract

In present study, we quantitatively define the galvanic corrosion phenomenon of Cu electrically coupled to Au on Print Circuit Board in Organic Solderability Preservatives (OSP) pretreatment (pickling and soft etching) solutions. As a result of polarization and ZRA test, galvanic corrosion rate of Cu in soft etching solution was about 3000 times higher than that of pickling solution. The oxone in OSP soft etching solution was acted as strong oxidant for Cu on PCB substrate. And the galvanic corrosion of Cu in OSP soft etching solution was examined with the change of etchants (oxone (KHSO5), sulfuric acid (H2SO4)) concentration. The galvanic corrosion rate of Cu was increased by the increase of the oxone and sulfuric acid concentrations, which lead to the increase of cathodic reactant such as HSO5- and H+ ions. And the degree of galvanic corrosion rate of Cu (Δisoft etching = icouple, (Cu-Au) - icorr, Cu) decreased with the decrease of the oxone and sulfuric acid concentrations.