ESM 200 is an electroless autocatalytic silver-plating process developed for optimal performance on microwave components. Plating with ESM200 yields three important advantages over traditional galvanic plating:
Conductivity.
Deposits with ESM200 are very dense. This results in a conductivity of the deposited silver that is very close to the theoretical value of pure metallic silver. The electrical properties of components plated with ESM200 are therefore excellent, providing low insertion loss and high Q-values.
Elimination of edge effects.
When treating complex geometries with traditional DC-plating it is inevitable that big variations in current density will occur in the substrate. Current density is many times higher on sharp edges and extremeties on the detail, which results in an uneven distribution of the deposited metal. The silverfilm may be as much as 15 times thicker on the edges than in the bottom of a cavity. This is a phenomenon often referred to as edge effects. The edge effects are an unwanted characteristica of galvanic plating because they give unnecessary high silverconsumption and often also degraded quality of the end product.
Due to the electroless nature of the ESM200 a current does not need to be applied to the substrate to be plated. Hence, when plating with ESM200 no variations in current can occur and edge effects are therefore totally eliminated. The result is total conformity of the silverfilm regardless of the substrate's geometry.
Microwave filter silver-plated with ESM200
for exceptional conductivity
and elimination of edge effects.
Easy processing. Parts to be plated does not need to be connected to a cathode. Hollow components, such as waveguides, that normally would require help anodes can be produced with substantial benefits with regard to processing time. In some cases, ESM200 even enables new and more effective designs of microwave components because of the abscence of restrictions due to the silver-plating process.
