Gold finger PCB are narrow, long, thin, and are situated on the edge of a printed circuit board. Its main purpose is to enable the board so it can connect with others. They act as the connector points on which different board connectors make contact.
The fingers are even used for connecting external components to the board.
Tips On How to Design PCB Gold Fingers
PCB Gold Fingers are prepared depending on their use and application. Therefore, different boards have different specifications listed. However, there are a few tips that are applied while designing all the fingers.
• You should never locate solder masks or screen printing near the gold fingers.
• Their alignment should be in a way that it faces opposite the center of the printed circuit board.
• Try to avoid locating these plated-through holes around the fingers.
• While you are designing PCB Gold Fingers it is better that you use the most ideal type of electroplated hard gold which is much more resistant to wear and tear when the terminals are in close contact with other connectors.
• You can even make use of electroless Nickel Immersion Gold which is much more cost-effective as compared to EH hard gold.
• The design process makes sure that there is perfect fitting between different fingers that are needed for different boards. You can achieve this by following the standards in the plating of gold fingers.
• Inspections always make sure that the fingers and slots are going to fit properly. Each plating gold PCB has to go through this inspection process. With the help of a magnifying glass, the inspection is performed. To make sure that gold plating is done there is a requirement of defects testing.
• Those fingers that do not properly adhere to the PCB surfaces are taken out for correction.
• The process of plating is performed in a series of steps to make sure that the fingers come together. First, the details of the board are listed down, then there is the application of nickel over the copper when it's time to attach the fingers, and then there is the application of surface finish.
• Gold finger PCB should be designed and produced according to the specific guidelines, standards, and regulations that are given.
