Coverage performance comparison vs. Neoganth® B Pre Dip on 4 different base materials (Isola IS410, Panasonic R1755C, Nanya NP140, Shengyi S1141) after new make-up, throughput and with maximum drag-in of Neoganth® W Pre Dip into the subsequent activator bath

Berlin, 20 March, 2018: Neoganth® W Pre Dip is Atotech’s new process for the desmear and metallization (PTH) process step for fine line HDI and package substrate applications. The new pre dip assures higher yield rates due to a significantly reduced occurrence of short circuits.

The trend for ever smaller lines and spaces in advanced HDI boards for mobile applications continues. Lines and spaces (L/S) will be reduced to 25/25 µm by 2019. The trend was made possible by manufacturing technologies such as modified semi-additive processes (mSAP) and advanced modified semi-additive processes (amSAP). With this minimization comes the need for new PORs (process of record), which offer significant technical advantages over existing ones.

Neoganth® W Pre Dip

Atotech’s newly developed Neoganth® W Pre Dip is a low foaming activator pre dip designed for horizontal transportation mode such as in Atotech’s Uniplate® LB line. The process leads to a significant reduction in particle formation thereby enabling higher yield rates in fine line production. A key feature to achieve this is its alkaline pH.

Customer data has shown that using Neoganth® W Pre Dip reduces the occurrence of short circuits in the process by up to 50% compared to competitive products. At the same time, the process provides excellent coverage performance while significantly reducing foaming behavior.

Neoganth® W Pre Dip is best used in front of an ionic PTH activator, such as Neoganth® U Activator or Neoganth® X Activator. It ensures proper wetting, pre-conditions the glass fibers and securely removes remaining copper oxides after etch cleaning.

The process has already been rolled-out successfully in Korea, Taiwan and China. Its key benefits allow it to exceed previous PTH POR process steps thereby assuring customers receive outstanding performance results.