Factors influencing the formation of “black pad” in electroless nickel‐immersion gold solderable finishes—a processing perspective

Nickel–gold planar surface coatings have been increasingly specified over the last ten years as the circuit board solderable finish of choice. Although offering a number of significant advantages over both conventional Hot Air Solder Levelled (HASL) finishes and alternative planar finishes, nickel–gold can, under certain conditions, be associated with a premature brittle interfacial solder joint fracture failure. This failure typically occurs at the interface of the nickel deposit and the intermetallic formed during soldering. The exposed nickel usually exhibits a “blackish” discolouration that has led to the term “black pad” being used to describe such failures. Although black pad usually occurs at very low levels, its incidence can be catastrophic and hence much work has been done by numerous workers to elucidate further the causes and mechanisms of this failure. This paper reviews the current understanding of the black pad failures and details work carried out by Shipley to extend this knowledge and to help users minimise the likelihood of its formation.