Parameters selection for different metals in coating thickness measurement using x-ray fluorescence analysis

X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRFA) is a method which is widely used in measuring thin coating thickness. For metal coatings, the chemical and physical properties vary from metal to metal and their sensitivities to measurement parameters are also different. Thus, using the same parameters to measure different metal coatings would affect the measurement accuracy. In this article, the effects of the primary filter, substrate material and high voltage on different metal thickness measurement are presented. Six kinds of common plating materials (Au, Ni, Al, Sn, Ag, Zn) are used in the experiments. The experimental results also illustrate the differences in parameters selection of light metal Al and other heavy metals and analyze the reasons for this difference.