The differences and application of hard gold plating and soft gold plating.
Plating gold is a type of PCB surface finish, also known as nickel gold electroplating. In the PCB manufacturing process, plating gold is to deposit a layer of gold plated over a barrier coat of nickel by electroplating.
Plating gold can be divided into ''hard gold plating'' and ''soft gold plating''. The PCB manufacturer has to take the characteristic of the two types of gold into consideration during PCB designing.
In PCB gold plating process, hard gold plating is also referred to as a plating alloy. It has been alloyed with other elements which makes it harder, whereas the soft gold plating is pure gold.
Plating gold application in PCB manufacturing. Hard gold plating is suitable for use in places where the force of friction is needed such as gold finger, keypad. Soft gold, is typically used for aluminium or gold wiring on COB (Chip On Board).
