IBM's Endicott plant developed a new copper plating process called the Thin Panel Plater (TPP) to replace its older acid-copper plater (ACP) process. The TPP uses a horizontal, enclosed design with fluid heads instead of vertical dip tanks, reducing rinse water usage by 75% (30,000 tons/year) and improving plating bath efficiency by 20%. It also decreased hazardous waste generation and energy usage while improving process efficiency. The plant employee who invented an improved DI water rinsing head that further reduced water consumption and improved rinsing quality, receiving a US patent.

1. NYS Governor's Awards for Pollution
Prevention - IBM Endicott
IBM - Endicott Plant, Microelectronics Division
Background
Invented by John Glenning
At its plant located in Endicott, IBM develops and manufactures sophisticated electronic
circuit boards and chip carriers for its own needs and for sale to other computer companies.
This IBM Microelectronics Division facility consists of four million square feet of building
space housing process development, manufacturing and other operations. The facility
employs more than 5,000 people in Endicott.
Methodologies and Procedures
Circuit board production is based on photolithography and requires a complex series of
chemical, mechanical and electronic processes. Raw materials include copper, epoxy,
various chemical solutions for plating, etching and stripping of metals and photosensitive
films, water for rinsing and energy to provide process heating, cooling and ventilation. The
entire process generates significant amounts of wastewater and hazardous waste.
A major part of the production is copper plating. Traditionally, the copper plating steps had
been performed for most products using an older acid-copper plater (ACP) plating
technique that required vertical dipping of large racks holding parts into big open-top tanks
of chemicals and rinse waters. The copper plating operation requires several multi-step
series through different tanks and chemistries to achieve the desired results.
The older process produced waste and scrap caused by "drag-out" of chemicals from one
tank to the next and by the inadvertent plating of copper onto the racks and fixtures holding
the product. Large volumes of evaporative waste were also produced from the open tank
design used for plating, etching, rinsing and drying the circuit components.
The improvement implemented at IBM's Endicott plant in 1996 consists of a new copper
plating process referred to as the Thin Panel Plater (TPP). This more efficient and less
polluting process supplanted the older ACP technology for many of IBM's circuited
products. Conceptually, the major difference is that the new TPP uses horizontal processing
of parts on conveyorized rollers in place of vertical dip tanks.

2. Benefits
The horizontal configuration of the TPP lends itself to a number of environmental
improvements. Benefits include a completely enclosed process with smaller chemical tanks
and lower ventilation requirements; use of a more efficient "fluid head" technology for
chemical solutions and rinse waters, elimination of racks and the associated waste of
copper which inadvertently plated on the racks, reduced levels of drag-out, reduced rinse
water requirements and reduced evaporative losses. In addition, the new process
incorporated several other techniques resulting in more environmentally friendly
chemistries. Specific environmental benefits include the following:
 Rinse waters reduced by 75 percent or 30,000 tons per year through the use of flood
bars/fluid head techniques instead of vertical dip tanks and vertical spray nozzles. Use of
"fluid head" consumes only one-half gallon per minute versus the 3 to 5 gallon per
minute consumption of the older immersion tanks and spray heads.
 Plating bath efficiency improved by 20 percent, primarily as a result of eliminating vertical
racks and associate rack stripping steps. The result is less drag out and reduced plating
on fixtures. This efficiency is gained across each of several chemical processing
stations, including cleaners 1 and 2, persulfate microetch, sulfuric acid pre-dip, activator
baths, reducer bath, electroless copper bath, acid dip, and several acid copper baths.
The total waste reduction is estimated to be 60 tons per year.
 Reuse of spent micro etch bath for maintenance reduced waste by 55 tons per year. The
spent persulfate solution from the microetch station is saved for reuse during weekly
maintenance to cleaning or etching of excess copper that plates onto interior tank walls
and fixtures.
 Toxicity reductions were achieved by converting a previously hazardous and corrosive
activator bath to a neutral activator chemistry.
 Toxicity reduction was achieved by electrifying a plating bath, which enables use of lower
concentrations of copper, hydroxide and formaldehyde.
 Energy savings of more than 500,000 kilowatt hours were realized as a result of
conveyer efficiency compared to the old hoist system and reduced process ventilation for
the enclosed process design.
 Overall process efficiency was improved by using chemical totes instead of 55-gallon
drums, realizing a savings of more than $20,000 annually.

3.  As Electronic circuitry density increases, DI Water Rinsing needs to increase by 2
orders of magnitude to meet product reliability requirements.
 Developed DI water rinsing head (fluid head) which improved rinsing quality by one
order of magnitude and reduced DI water consumption by two orders of magnitude
resulting in a US Patent.
 This was a brain-storm by myself and an operator. We changed the rinsing from
spraying to cross-product.
 This significantly improved rinsing and product reliability.
 This resulted in a US Patent (US Patent 5063951)
http://www.dec.ny.gov/public/21702.html
INVENTED: 1987
US PATENT 5063951 ISSUED: July 19, 1990