Electroplating system including interchangeable carriers for supporting and providing cathode potential to articles

Abstract

A processing system, electroplating cell, transport system, cathode contact subsystem and method of providing a cathode contact to the articles being transported within an electroplating cell. The processing system may include a loading station, pre-processing station, electroplating station, post-processing station, unloading station, and a transport system that transports the articles to the various stations. The electroplating cell comprises a container to support a plating fluid bath, and an anode electrode. In one embodiment, the cathode contact system provides a cathode contact to the articles by way of the transport system's electrically-conductive, conveyor structure. In another embodiment, the cathode contact system comprises an electrically-conductive moving conveyor structure adapted to make cathode contact to said articles and move substantially in synchronous with the articles. In yet another embodiment, the transport system comprises a plurality of multi-article carriers supported by a conveyor structure, and adapted to provide a cathode contact to the articles.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a divisional of and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 096,366 filed on Apr. 1, 2005, and entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD OF TRANSPORTING AND PROVIDING A CATHODE CONTACT TO ARTICLES IN AN ELECTROPLATING SYSTEM,” which, in turn, claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 666,984, filed on Mar. 30, 2005, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]This invention relates generally to electroplating systems, and in particular, to a system and method of transporting and providing a cathode contact to articles in an electroplating system.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]The electroplating of relatively small articles, such as connector pins and sockets, presents many challenges. These challenges include providing a relatively uniform metallic coating on the articles, efficiently using the amount of plating solution to plate the articles, and configuri...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014]The electroplating cell comprises a container to support a plating fluid bath and an anode electrode situated within the container and adapted to contact the plating fluid bath. The methodology of electroplating only a desired portion of the respective articles entails several aspects such as the transport system being secured to a fixed member such that the vertical position (i.e., height) of the articles remains substantially constant as the articles are transported in and out of the electroplating cell. Also, the electroplating cell includes a vertical-adjustment mechanism to adjust the height of the container such that the desired portion of the respective articles is immersed in the plating fluid bath at a precise controlled depth. The electroplating cell further includes a flow control system to control the flow rate of plating fluid into the container such that the height of the surface of the plating fluid bath is maintained substantially constant. The container additionally includes one or more bleed holes through its walls, which assist in stabilizing the surface of the plating fluid bath.

[0016]Another aspect of the invention relates to a processing system, electroplating cell, and method of reducing the discoloration (i.e., demarcation line) that often forms on articles undergoing a partial plating process. The processing system may be similar to the ones described above, including a loading station, pre-processing station, electroplating station, post-processing station, unloading station, and a transport system that transports the articles to the various stations. The electroplating cell comprises a container to support a plating fluid bath, an anode electrode situated within the container and adapted to contact the plating fluid bath, a support structure, which may be part of the transport system, to support the articles such that only a portion thereof is immersed in the plating fluid bath, and a gas flow system adapted to cause gas flow (e.g., air, nitrogen gas, argon gas, etc.) proximate the interface of the articles to the plating fluid bath. The gas flow near the articles prevents or reduces plating fluid vapors from impinging the articles, thereby reducing the discoloration that would otherwise form on the articles.

Problems solved by technology

The electroplating of relatively small articles, such as connector pins and sockets, presents many challenges.

A drawback of the barrel plating technique is that the entire surface of each of the articles is plated.

If the entire surface need not be plated, the barrel plating technique results in a substantial excess of plating, which can be very expensive over many runs and time.

In this example, it is desired that the lower portion of the article 100 be plated to a height of H±ΔH, where ΔH is an acceptable error for the height H. If the electroplating process is unable to achieve the height requirement on a consistent article-to-article basis, many articles will be defective which can drive up substantially the costs of plating the articles.

However, the positioning of the anode 106 to the side of the pin, would not be desirable for plating a socket.

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