The nickel oxidizes on contact with air.  Follow the nickel evaporation with
a gold evaporation (a few hundred angstroms should be fine).  Do not break
vacuum between the depositions.  The gold plating should then work.

David Nemeth
Senior Engineer
Sophia Wireless, Inc.
14225-C Sullyfield Circle
Chantilly, VA
Cell: (202) 288-1067
Ph: (703) 961-9573 x206
Fax:(703) 961-9576

-----Original Message-----
From: mems-talk-bounces@memsnet.org
[mailto:mems-talk-bounces@memsnet.org]On Behalf Of
Jukka.Viheriala@orc.tut.fi
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2005 4:28 AM
To: mems-talk@memsnet.org
Subject: [mems-talk] Plating Au on Ni.


Hello,

We are making process where we would like to plate gold features using
thick PR-mold. Process we had in mind was following:

1.    Evaporate Ni layer on GaAs-wafer.
2.    Make thick PR-mold
3.    Plate Au-trough mold on Ni
4.    Remove PR
5.    Etch Ni away using plated Au as a etch mask

However we have problems with plating on Ni. It just is not plating
anything. Should we try to make some pretreatment to Ni before try to plate
Au?

We have fresh and clean chemical with correct pH. Also plating Au on Au is
working correctly. We are making our plating with Enthone Nuronex 309B
plating solution (should be same stuff than Microfab Au150).

Best regards,
Jukka Viheriälä

***********************************************
Jukka Viheriälä, Researcher

Optoelectronics Research Centre
Tampere University of Technology
P.O. Box 692
FIN-333101 Tampere, Finland

Tel.: +050 595 4147
Fax  +358 3 3115 3400
Email: Jukka.Viheriala@orc.tut.fi



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