Making Hole Walls Conductive
After drilling and desmear, hole walls are bare fiberglass - not conductive. Before electrolytic copper can build plate thickness (20-25um), a thin conductive layer must be deposited. Electroless copper does this chemically - no electric current. The panel passes through conditioner, micro-etch, palladium catalyst, accelerator, and electroless copper bath. Formaldehyde reduces copper ions to metallic copper, depositing a continuous 0.5-1.0um film on all surfaces including deep inside every hole.
Our Universe copper deposition pretreatment line GL231108B1032A alongside Atotech lines use automated chemical analysis: bath concentrations measured continuously, fresh chemistry metered in. Temperature control +/-1C. Chemistry replaced based on throughput (square meters processed), not calendar time.
