{"id":2928,"date":"2024-09-06T08:06:09","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T00:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/?p=2928"},"modified":"2026-10-02T17:38:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T09:38:30","slug":"the-difference-between-deposited-nickel-gold-and-electroplated-nickel-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/en\/blog\/the-difference-between-deposited-nickel-gold-and-electroplated-nickel-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"The Difference Between Electroless Nickel-Gold and Electrolytic Nickel-Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Surface Treatment Processes for Printed Circuit Boards: Two common surface treatment processes are electroless nickel-gold plating and electroplated nickel-gold plating. They differ in terms of process steps, signal transmission capability, process capability, plating structure, hardness, solderability, wettability, and reliability risks.<\/p>\n<p>This article will take an in-depth look at the differences between these two processes to help you better choose the one that best suits your PCB manufacturing needs.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-8896\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/differences-between-pcb-nickel-palladium-gold-and-nickel-gold-electroplating-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Differences Between Nickel-Palladium-Gold and Nickel-Gold Plating on PCBs\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/differences-between-pcb-nickel-palladium-gold-and-nickel-gold-electroplating-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/differences-between-pcb-nickel-palladium-gold-and-nickel-gold-electroplating-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/differences-between-pcb-nickel-palladium-gold-and-nickel-gold-electroplating-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/differences-between-pcb-nickel-palladium-gold-and-nickel-gold-electroplating.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>1. Different manufacturing processes<\/h2>\n<h3>Electrolytic Nickel-Gold Plating Process:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>First, a nickel layer approximately 120\u2013200 \u03bcm thick is deposited on the copper surface via an autocatalytic reaction.<\/li>\n<li>Then, through a chemical displacement reaction, gold is displaced from the solution onto the nickel surface, completely covering it with a gold layer whose thickness is generally controlled at approximately 1\u20133 \u03bcm.<\/li>\n<li>By controlling parameters such as time, the maximum thickness can reach up to 10 \u03bcm.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Electrolytic Nickel-Gold Plating Process:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Through an electrochemical reaction, a nickel layer approximately 120\u2013200 \u03bcm thick is deposited onto the copper surface via electroplating.<\/li>\n<li>Then, a thin layer of gold approximately 0.5\u20131 \u03bcm thick is electroplated onto the nickel layer.<\/li>\n<li>By controlling parameters such as time and current, the thickness of the gold layer can reach 50 \u03bcm or more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>2. Differences in signal transmission capabilities<\/h2>\n<h3>Electrolytic Nickel-Gold Plating Process:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The use of a nickel-gold layer as the resist layer results in a nickel-gold layer covering all traces and pads.<\/li>\n<li>At high frequencies, signal transmission occurs primarily through the nickel-gold layer; however, the \u201cskin effect\u201d can severely impair signal transmission.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Electrolytic Nickel-Gold Plating Process:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The nickel-gold plating is only on the solder pads; there is no nickel-gold plating on the circuit traces.<\/li>\n<li>Signals are transmitted along the copper layer, and due to the skin effect, its signal transmission capability is far superior to that of the nickel layer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>3. Differences in process capability<\/h2>\n<h3>Electrolytic Nickel-Gold Plating Process:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The nickel-gold layer is prone to sagging after etching; particularly when the copper layer is thick, it is susceptible to collapsing and fracturing, which can cause short circuits.<\/li>\n<li>Not suitable for high-density circuit design.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Electrolytic Nickel-Gold Plating Process:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>After the circuit patterns and solder mask have been formed, the nickel-gold layer adheres only to the surface of the pads.<\/li>\n<li>Does not affect high-density circuit design.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>4. Differences in Coating Structure<\/h2>\n<h3>Electrolytic Nickel-Gold Plating Process:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The nickel-gold layer has a fine, uniform crystalline structure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Electrolytic Nickel-Gold Plating Process:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The nickel-gold layer consists of relatively large, amorphous crystalline particles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>5. Differences in coating hardness<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The hardness of the gold and nickel plating layers from the two treatment methods was tested using a micro-Vickers hardness tester. The results showed that, for both the gold and nickel layers, electroless nickel-gold plating had a higher hardness than electroless nickel-gold plating. The gold plating was approximately 7% harder, while the nickel plating was about 24% harder.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>6. Differences in Solderability and Wettability<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The electroless nickel-gold process exhibits faster wetting properties; in particular, as welding progresses, the wetting rate of electroless nickel-gold is faster than that of electroplated nickel-gold. This is because the crystalline grains in electroless nickel-gold are larger and amorphous, resulting in a faster rate of dissolution and diffusion, while hardness is also one of the factors affecting wetting properties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>7. Differences in Reliability Risks<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Due to the presence of pores in its structure, the electroless nickel-gold process is prone to oxidation, which causes corrosion of the nickel layer\u2014a phenomenon known as \u201cblack nickel.\u201d This requires increasing the thickness of the gold layer to compensate. The electroplated nickel-gold process, however, generally does not exhibit the \u201cblack nickel\u201d phenomenon due to the fine crystalline structure of the plating layer, and therefore offers higher reliability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When selecting a PCB surface treatment process, it is necessary to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of these two processes based on specific application needs and performance requirements. Each process has its own unique characteristics and is suitable for different application scenarios.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u5370\u5236\u7535\u8def\u677f\u8868\u9762\u5904\u7406\u5de5\u827a\u4e24\u79cd\u5e38\u89c1\u7684\u8868\u9762\u5904\u7406\u5de5\u827a\u662f\u6c89\u954d\u91d1\u5de5\u827a\u548c\u7535\u954d\u91d1\u5de5\u827a\uff0c\u5b83\u4eec\u5728\u5de5\u827a\u6b65\u9aa4\u3001\u4fe1\u53f7\u4f20\u8f93\u80fd\u529b\u3001\u5236\u7a0b\u80fd\u529b\u3001 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"The Difference Between Electroless Nickel-Gold and Electrolytic Nickel-Gold","description":"What is the difference between electroless nickel-gold and electroplated nickel-gold? This comparison, based on seven factors\u2014including process steps, signal transmission, coating structure, and hardness\u2014helps you select the appropriate surface treatment based on product requirements and cost."},"_slim_seo_primary_term_category":0,"_slim_seo_primary_term_post_tag":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19352,"href":"https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2928\/revisions\/19352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jingpengpcb.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}