Printed Circuit Board Plating Finishes

When you are in the process of designing your PCBs, you have a lot of decisions to make in order to make sure that your finished PCBs can work best for your application. One of these decisions is to choose a suitable printed circuit board plating finish. Although there are multiple plating finishes available, each has its own unique benefits that can either make or break your PCBs. Hot air solder leveling (HASL) keeps fabrication costs low and is excellent for both solder wettability and solder joint integrity. A lead-free HASL finish is also available. In addition, printed circuit boards may be plated using electroless nickel immersion gold, which provides excellent co-planarity, immersion silver, which offers low resistance and high speed, or immersion tin, which is used to create a layer of metal that results in a flat finish. Other options include organic solderable coatings (OSP), and electrolytic nickel gold. Consult a PCB expert to learn about your best option.