A Study on the Adhesion Improvement of Immersion Copper Coatings using Complexing Agent

Amino-carboxyl acid as a complexing agent in acid copper sulfate solution was utilized to improve the adhesion of immersion copper layer for steel wire. According to the tape test results, regardless of alloy composition of the wire, the adhesion of immersion copper layer was improved with the addition of amino-carboxyl acid. The incorporation of H and Fe in the plating layer was analyzed by TOF-SIMS. The H and Fe were detected at the entire coating layer without any addition of amino-carboxyl acid. However, with addition of amino-carboxyl acid, the H and Fe were scarcely detected at the coating layer.