A Comparative Study on Methods for Cleaning and Preparation of the Board Surface with a Suspension of Abrasives in the Production of Fine Line Printed Circuits

A comparative study on methods for cleaning copper-clad boards with abrasive slurries is presented. A number of methods are analysed in detail; the conclusions indicate that brush scrubbing with abrasive slurries offers a wider processing window, whereas jet scrubbing is less ‘forgiving’ for the small/medium-sized manufacturers where more handling of the material is necessary due to reduced automation. For the larger high volume manufacturers of printed circuit boards with higher levels of automation and tighter process control no significant yield differences were found.