Multitest hones plating process for fine-pitch board fab

Test & Measurement World Staff- August 22, 2012

Multitest, a manufacturer of final test handlers, contactors, and load boards, reports that its pulse plating process offers advantages in terms of both PCB fabrication cost and cycle time. Originally developed to support high-aspect-ratio boards at a pitch of 0.4 mm, the company has continued to optimize the plating process for small via diameters in PCBs with high layer counts. The process now allows for 0.0051-in. diameter through holes into PCBs with up to 40 layers.

Pulse plating is particularly useful when applied to ball-grid array and wafer-level chip-scale packages, as well as in vertical probe applications. It eliminates the need for sequential lamination in most 0.4-mm pitch applications and can be deployed for 0.3-mm pitch BGA applications with through-hole construction.

Multitest, www.multitest.com