Assessment of surface cleanliness for metal surfaces using an electrochemical technique

A number of cleanliness assessment techniques related to quality surface preparation prior to electroplating, are in use but in general are comparative or subjective and not very sensitive. Electrochemical techniques are especially applicable to wet surfaces at intermediate stages of processing. One such technique, based on both two and three electrode polarisation, has been evaluated for silver, gold, copper, copper alloys, aluminium and iron alloy substrates and found to be easy to use without specialist competence, reliable enough to give reproducible results and at the same time rapid and cost effective. Results are presented justifying this claim and demonstrating how it may be used as a quality measuring instrument.