comupter simulation of electroplating system

[isotherma]

Anybody knows of any software packages that will model electroplating system?
books, or literatures on this subject will be highly helpful too. Thanks!

 

[kenvlach]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by 'software packages that will model electroplating system.' There are programs for process control (temperature, chemistry, thickness measurement), but I'm not aware of any for the electrodeposition process per se.

Take a look at some of the books and suppliers listed at the sites I listed in thread116-56926.
For more advanced modelling of electrodeposition processes, I recommend The Journal of the Electrochemical Society and the Monograph (book) Fundamentals of Electrochemical Deposition, by M. Paunovic and M. Schlesinger (1998); 301 pages, ISBN 0-471-16820-3.
available at

http://www.electrochem.org/publications/publications.htm

 

[isotherma]

Thanks, Kenvlach!
I should have been more specific about my question: Last year or so, I attended an AESF show where I saw there was this software package that modeling the electroplating system. Basically, it consists of simulations for primary, secondary, mixed current distruibutions in an electroplating cell (I believe it also has some info. on hydrodynamic influence) by solving the related PDEs -- I'm not sure what kind of algorithms they used for iteration (Gaussion or SOR). It has a graphic interface. Very nicely done. The only thing is that it is for educational or research purpose. The geometry of the cathode(translate: the part) is relatively simple -- rod, triangle, etc.
I just wonder whether there are more people out there doing this type of work, where the plating thickness of a part with more complicated configuration can be predicted as close as possible, and the toolings and solution parameters can be modified accordingly.
Thanks for your help!

PS. I have been looking through some articles in Journal of Electrochamical society. There is this work using MathLab to study the hydrodynamic effect on plating disks. My take is that softwares concerning CFD are easier to find than in our field.

 

[kenvlach]

Very interesting. Haven't seen the simulation software.
The 'Nickel Plating' article from the MF Guidebook may be useful:

http://www.metalfinishing.com/WZ/Me...lGB_ElectroplatingSolutions/000020/show/#TBLI

The vast majority of platers follow 'cookbook' recipes. The only 'research' is using a Hull plating cell to determine the effect of current density for a particular plating solution (the Hull cell has rectangular anode & cathodes placed at an angle, so that the current density varies from high at one end to low at the other). Some cells allow for heating or for an external pump to vary circulation.

The annual SUR/FIN show is in Milwaukee June 23-26 this year, so you can find any vendor there. Overall description is at

http://www.aesf.org/conferences/surfin.html

Exhibiting vendors are at

http://www.aesf.org/exhibit/sf03boothdesc.html

and last year's (2002) exhibitors are at

http://www.aesf.org/exhibit/sf02boothdesc.html

Note: the exhibitor listings are pretty vast, you can use your browser (Edit, Find on this page) to search for keywords like computer.

Good luck,
Ken

 

[djsugg]

The only commercially available electrodeposition software I am aware of is Cell Design 2000 by L-Chem. It is based on the work of Dr. Uziel Landau, who is also the President. He normally attends SURFIN, so that is most likely what you saw demonstrated.

The L-Chem website is:

http://www.l-chem.com/index.htm

You can download a demo of the program from the website.

 

[isotherma]

Thanx!
Yes! I think that is exactlly what I saw in SUR/FIN. I'm going this year again, so I will have a better look at it.
Thank you both, ken and djsugg

 

[jvmaselli]

the chemical engineering module from Comsol might be worth a look

http://www.comsol.com/chem/