Characterisation of a thiosulphate-sulphite gold electrodeposition process

M. J-Liew, S. Sobri, S. Roy*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Electrodeposition of soft gold is an important process in the fabrication of micro devices for electronics, optics etc. Traditional gold electroplating is based on a gold cyanide process which is not applicable for the stringent requirements in state of the art micro device manufacture. Newcastle University has been involved in the development of an industrial process based on a mixed ligand electrolyte - the gold thiosulphate-sulphite system. Here we present methods for the formulation of this electrolyte in the laboratory which ensure bath stability and process compatibility. In addition, we have carried out spectrophotometry to elucidate the possible reasons of its chemical stability. Standard rotating disk and cyclic voltammetry has been carried out to determine the electrochemical behaviour of the gold thiosulphate-sulphite system. The changes in electrochemical behaviour as the bath ages are also discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)877-881
Number of pages5
JournalElectrochimica Acta
Volume51
Issue number5
Early online date2 Aug 2005
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Nov 2005

Keywords

  • cyclic voltammetry
  • gold electrodeposition
  • rotating disc electrode
  • thiosulphate-sulphite electrolyte
  • UV-vis spectroscopy

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