KR100917783B1 - Rf device and method of treating plating in the same - Google Patents

Abstract

RF equipment and a plating treatment method are disclosed. (A) pretreating a plated material made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy; (B) forming a plating layer for strengthening adhesion during electroplating; And (c) performing white bronze plating on the plating layer for strengthening the adhesion, wherein the adhesion enhancement layer is a layer for enhancing the plating adhesion of the white bronze.

RF equipment, white bronze

Description

RF equipment and plating method therefor {RF DEVICE AND METHOD OF TREATING PLATING IN THE SAME}

The present invention relates to an RF device and a plating treatment method therefor, and more particularly, to an RF device plating processing method and an RF device thereby improving the corrosion resistance of the RF equipment.

Recently, with the development of mobile communication, optical communication and satellite communication, filters, duplexers, waveguides and other RF equipment for processing RF signals have been mass produced and used.

In general, when processing a high frequency RF signal such as a microwave, a skin effect (maximum) of the high frequency current is generated on the surface of the RF equipment caused a loss in the RF equipment. Therefore, RF equipment (generally made of aluminum) that processes high frequency RF signals has been plated, typically silver plated, on its surface in order to reduce this loss and obtain the desired properties in the desired frequency range. That is, a silver film was formed on the surface of the RF equipment by the silver plating process. However, this silver film could reduce the loss due to the epidermal effect. However, these silver coatings have a number of defects, causing damage in a corrosive environment.

In recent years, RF equipments such as outdoor repeaters are often installed outdoors, and in the outdoor, silver plating equipment having weak corrosion resistance due to defects in silver coating has been easily corroded and deteriorated.

In order to solve the problems as described above, the present invention is to propose a method for plating RF equipment having a strong corrosion resistance and thereby RF equipment that can be used stably outdoors.

Another object of the present invention is to propose a plating method of the RF equipment and thereby RF equipment that can be used stably in a corrosive environment by minimizing the defect of the plating film.

Still another object of the present invention is to propose a plating method of RF equipment and RF equipment thereby, which can be effectively applied to RF equipment in which the connector portion and the body portion of the RF equipment are integrally formed.

In order to achieve the object as described above, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the step of (a) pre-treating the plated material consisting of aluminum or aluminum alloy; (B) forming a plating layer for strengthening adhesion during electroplating; And (c) performing white bronze plating on the plating layer for strengthening the adhesion, wherein the adhesion enhancement layer is a layer for enhancing the plating adhesion of the white bronze.

The plating treatment method may further include forming an alkali-based underlayer by plating an alkali resistant material between the material to be plated and the adhesion reinforcing layer.

The plating layer for strengthening the adhesion may include a copper plating layer formed by a copper plating method.

The alkali resistant base layer may include an electroless nickel plating layer formed by electroless nickel plating.

The plating method may further include neutralizing the plating surface by reacting alkali and acid after the white bronze plating.

According to another aspect of the invention, the step of (a) pre-treating the plated material consisting of aluminum or aluminum alloy; Plating an alkali resistant material to form an alkali resistant underlayer (b); And (c) forming a white bronze plating layer by electroplating.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an RF device which is plated by the above-described methods and the body is formed of aluminum or aluminum alloy.

The present invention has the advantage that the RF equipment can be used stably in the outdoor by using the white bronze has been proven corrosion resistance as a plating material.

In addition, the present invention can be used stably in a corrosive environment by minimizing the defects of the plating film, in particular can be effectively applied to RF equipment in which the connector portion and the body portion of the RF equipment is integrally formed.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail the RF equipment plating method and thereby RF equipment for improving the corrosion resistance according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of RF equipment to which a plating method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

1 shows an RF filter as an RF device to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. The plating method according to an embodiment of the present invention is not limited to that applied to the RF filter shown in FIG. 1 and may be applied to various kinds of RF equipment in which plating is performed for loss prevention and internal protection. For example, in addition to the RF filter, it can be applied to various kinds of RF equipment such as waveguides, duplexers, diplexers, biases, etc., but the present embodiment will be described in the case of applying to the RF filter. It can be applied to RF equipment.

Referring to FIG. 1, an RF filter of RF equipment to which the present invention is applied is an outer member having a body portion 102 and a cover portion 104, and an inner member existing in an inner region defined by the outer member. (Not shown), input connector 100, output connector (not shown) and at least one tuning bolt 108.

The outer member is in contact with moisture and the like as a part exposed to the outside, so it is particularly important to have strong corrosion resistance so as not to be corroded by the moisture.

The input connector 106 is a port for receiving an RF signal from an external device (not shown).

The output connector is a port for outputting a filtered RF signal inside the RF equipment 100. The input connector and the output connector are typically body formed by copper or copper alloy and then white bronze plated thereon.

The tuning bolt 104 is inserted into the RF filter 100 through the cover 104 as shown in FIG. 1, and adjusts the center frequency and bandwidth for filtering. For example, the tuning bolt 104 is arranged to correspond to a resonator (not shown) or coupling window formed inside the RF filter 100, and the center frequency and bandwidth may be varied according to the depth into which the tuning bolt is inserted. Can be.

2 is a cross-sectional view showing the inside of the RF equipment to which the plating method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

Referring to FIG. 2, a plurality of cavities 204 defined by a plurality of walls 202 and a resonator 206 accommodated in each cavity are provided inside the RF equipment 100 of the present embodiment.

Each cavity and the resonator accommodated therein resonate with the input RF signal, and the RF signal is filtered in a frequency band corresponding to the resonance frequency. Here, one of the walls defining the cavity is opened for the progress of the RF signal to form a coupling window.

The number of cavities and resonators circuitly means the number of poles of the filter, and the number of poles is set in consideration of the insertion loss and the skirt characteristic of the filter. In general, as the number of poles increases, the skirt characteristics improve, but the insertion loss decreases. That is, the skirt characteristic and insertion loss are in a trade off relationship with each other.

The resonator 206 may be a dielectric resonator or a metal resonator according to a mode.

The RF filter as described above and the RF equipment including the same are generally molded by aluminum or an aluminum alloy, and silver plated on the aluminum metal layer.

As described in the prior art, the silver coating by the silver plating has a number of defects, there is a problem that is easily damaged when used in a corrosive environment.

This embodiment proposes a plating method that can improve the corrosion resistance compared to silver plating in RF equipment formed by aluminum or an aluminum alloy as described above, and does not differ in loss and PIMD characteristics when compared with silver plating.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a plating method capable of satisfying PIMD characteristics required for RF equipment while improving corrosion resistance through white bronze plating without using silver plating is proposed. Conventionally, white bronze plating has been applied only when the material to be plated is mainly copper alloy, but in the practice of the present invention, a white bronze plating method is disclosed that can be applied to RF equipment in which a body is composed of aluminum or an aluminum alloy.

3 is a diagram illustrating a plating layer of RF equipment to which a plating method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

Referring to FIG. 3, a plating layer to which a plating method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied may include a material to be plated 300, an alkali-resistant base layer 302, a reinforcement layer 304, and a white bronze plating layer 306. It includes.

The to-be-plated material 300 is made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy and is formed by a molding method such as die casting.

The alkali resistant underlayer 302 is a layer formed by underplating, and is made of a material having alkyl resistance. The alkali-resistant base layer 302 is a layer for preventing the damage of the plated material 300 due to the alkali of the white bronze of the white bronze plated layer 306 formed on the material to be plated. The alkali-resistant base layer 302 may have alkali resistance but may be selected in consideration of adhesion to the material to be plated 300 and the lubricity-strengthening layer 304.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, an electroless nickel plating method may be used for forming an alkali-resistant base layer. When electroless nickel plating is used, it has an advantage of reducing alkali defects and improving defects while plating. However, the alkali-resistant base layer 302 of the present invention is not limited to electroless nickel, and plating of any material capable of satisfying adhesion while having alkali resistance may be applied.

The adhesion reinforcing layer 304 is a layer formed to reinforce the plating adhesion with the outermost white bronze plating layer 306. The white bronze plating is performed by an electroplating method, and the adhesion reinforcing layer 304 enhances the plating adhesion by charge and functions as a buffer layer of the white bronze plating layer.

In addition, the adhesion reinforcing layer serves to reduce the plating defect (defect) by supplementing the charge deviation due to the shape of the RF device in the white bronze plating layer 306, the outermost plating layer.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a copper plating layer formed by the copper plating method may be used as the adhesion reinforcing layer.

White bronze is an alloy consisting of copper, zinc and tin, characterized by the fact that zinc is corroded first, then tin is corroded, and finally copper is corroded. As a result, when the corrosion of the white bronze plated to some extent, only the copper component is present in the white bronze plated layer, wherein the adhesion reinforcement layer is made of a material similar to the copper component present in the last of the white bronze layer. It is preferable that the copper plating layer is used as the adhesion reinforcing layer because it is advantageous for the holding.

The white bronze plating layer 306 is a plating layer for improving corrosion resistance. The white bronze plating layer may be formed by processing white bronze, which has been tested for corrosion resistance, at a current density of about 1 A / dm ² and a voltage of about 3.8V. The white bronze plating layer 306 is difficult to be plated on the aluminum or aluminum alloy layer, which is the material to be plated, due to alkali and adhesion problems of white bronze, but the aluminum and aluminum alloys are plated by forming an alkali-resistant base layer and an adhesion reinforcing layer below. Plating can also be appropriately applied to RF equipment as a material.

Figure 4 is a flow chart showing the overall flow of the RF equipment plating method for improving the corrosion resistance according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, first, a preprocessing operation is performed (step 400). Pre-treatment operation means removing foreign substances from the material to be plated and making the surface to be plated uniform so that proper plating can be performed.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a pretreatment process according to an embodiment of the present invention, with reference to FIG. 5.

Referring to FIG. 5, an ultrasonic degreasing operation is performed as the first operation of the pretreatment (step 500). Degreasing is a process for removing foreign matter or organic matter attached to the material to be plated. If foreign matter adheres to the surface of the material to be plated, it causes a poor plating adhesion and a non-uniform plating layer is formed, thereby removing the process.

When the ultrasonic degreasing operation is completed, an etching operation is performed (step 502). The etching operation is to remove foreign substances, organic matters, etc. remaining after the solvent degreasing or the ultrasonic degreasing step, and to improve the strength between the material and the plating layer. The etching operation may be performed in an etchant having a concentration of 100 to 150 g / L for a time of about 40 to 60 seconds.

When the etching operation is complete, a desmut operation is performed (step 504). The desmuting operation is to remove the black film of the metal impurity salt generated on the surface of the plated material after the etching operation and to neutralize the alkalized material with a strong acid to improve the plating adhesion. The desmut process may be performed for about 5 to 10 seconds with an activation accessory having a concentration of about 60%.

Once the pretreatment work for the material to be plated is completed, a gating process for the material to be plated is performed (step 402).

The zincating process is a plating process so that electrolytic or electroless plating can be directly performed on a metal or metal alloy, and is performed on the surface of the material to be plated 300 before the alkali-resistant layer 302 is formed.

It may not be oxidized by the plating layer formed on the material to be plated by the zinc coating process, and the adhesion between the material to be plated 300 and the alkali-resistant layer 302 may be improved.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the zincate treatment may be performed for about 20 to 40 seconds at a temperature of about 30 degrees.

When the gating process is performed, plating for forming the underlying plating layer is performed (step 402). The base plated layer is a plated layer that serves to plate the white bronze plating stably with proper adhesion to the material to be plated and to protect the material to be plated.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a detailed process of the underlying plating method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, an electroless nickel plating process is performed. Here, electroless nickel plating is a method first attempted in the United States in the 1940's, and means a method of plating nickel on the plated material 300 using a catalytic method without using any electricity from the outside. Such electroless nickel plating may be divided into substitution plating and chemical reduction plating, but chemical reduction plating is generally used as the electroless nickel plating.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, an electroless nickel plating process may be performed for about 30 minutes in a nickel solution having a concentration of 4.6 to 5.2 g / L.

After the electroless nickel plating is performed, a washing operation is performed (step 602), and the washing operation may be performed in a washing tank for removing foreign matter attached during the plating process.

Once the electroless nickel plating is complete, copper plating is performed (step 604). Copper-strike plating may be performed in a CuCN solution having a concentration of 30-50 g / L for a time of about 1 minute to 3 minutes and is performed by an electroplating method.

When copper plating is completed, a bluish copper operation is performed (step 606). The clarification copper operation may be performed in a CuCN solution having a concentration of 80-100 g / L.

When the base plating operation is completed, a white bronze plating operation is performed (step 406).

White bronze plating is processed on the copper plating layer which serves as an adhesion reinforcing layer, and is also treated by an electroplating method. The electroplating method utilizes electrolytic deposition of metal ions on the surface of the target material by placing the metal to be plated as a cathode and using a metal to be electrodeposited in an electrolyte containing ions of the metal to be electrodeposited and energized. Plating method.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, 1.0 to 1.2 A using a solution of a material constituting white bronze having a concentration of 7.5 to 9.5 g / L copper, 30 to 40 g / L tin, and 0.8 to 12 g / L zinc. Electroplated at a current density of / dm2. In this case, KCN and KOH may be used as the charge solution.

White bronze has better corrosion resistance by brine than aluminum alloy and silver, and bale copper. The white bronze has a long time to resist corrosion by zinc protecting copper by galvanic and then Tin protecting copper.

When the white bronze plating operation is completed, a neutralization operation is performed (step 408). Neutralization work is to prevent discoloration and corrosion through neutralization of plating surface by reacting strong alkali and acid for stability of plating film after plating.

In particular, the plating method according to an embodiment of the present invention may be effectively applied to RF equipment in which the connector is integrally formed. When the connector is formed in one piece, the plating operation can be completed by one plating process by performing white bronze plating on the connector and the body in a batch without the need for white bronze plating on the connector separately. There is an advantage.

7 is a view showing a state after the salt spray experiment of the conventional RF plating of the RF equipment, Figure 8 is a view showing a state after the salt spray experiment of the plating RF equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention described above are disclosed for purposes of illustration, and those skilled in the art having ordinary knowledge of the present invention will be able to make various modifications, changes, additions within the spirit and scope of the present invention, such modifications, changes and Additions should be considered to be within the scope of the following claims.

1 is a view showing an example of RF equipment to which the plating method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the inside of the RF equipment to which the plating method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

3 is a view showing a plating layer of the RF equipment to which the plating method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

Figure 4 is a flow chart showing the overall flow of the RF equipment plating method for improving the corrosion resistance according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a pretreatment process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 6 is a flow chart showing a detailed process of the underlying plating method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 7 is a view showing a state after the salt spray experiment of the conventional RF plating silver equipment.

8 is a view showing a state after the salt spray experiment of the plating RF equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention

Claims (12)

(A) pretreating a plated material made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy; And (B) forming a plating layer for strengthening adhesion during electroplating; And (C) performing a white bronze plating on the plating layer for strengthening the adhesion, wherein the plating layer for strengthening the adhesion is a layer for enhancing the plating adhesion of the white bronze. The method of claim 1, RF plating the method of claim 1, further comprising the step of plating the alkaline material between the plated material and the plating layer for strengthening the adhesion to form an alkali-resistant base layer. The method of claim 1, The plating layer for strengthening the adhesion strength RF equipment plating treatment method characterized in that it comprises a copper plating layer formed by a copper plating method. The method of claim 2, And the alkali-resistant base layer comprises an electroless nickel plated layer formed by electroless nickel plating. The method of claim 1, And neutralizing the plating surface by reacting alkali and acid after the white bronze plating. (A) pretreating a plated material made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy; And Plating an alkali resistant material to form an alkali resistant underlayer (b); And And (c) forming a white bronze plating layer by electroplating. The method of claim 6, And forming an adhesion force reinforcing layer for strengthening the adhesion of the white bronze between the alkali-resistant base layer and the white bronze plating layer. The method of claim 6, And the alkali-resistant base layer comprises an electroless nickel plating layer formed by electroless nickel plating. The method of claim 7, wherein The adhesion strength enhancement layer is RF equipment plating treatment method comprising a copper plating layer formed by a copper plating method. The method of claim 6, And neutralizing the plating surface by reacting alkali and acid after the white bronze plating. RF equipment which is plated by the method of any one of claims 1 to 10 and the body is formed of aluminum or an aluminum alloy. The method of claim 11, The RF equipment is RF equipment, characterized in that the connector and the body is formed integrally.

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