In addition to being used to produce the circuit board of your smartphone, we also see that all kinds of other precious metals are used. But why exactly? Because we can imagine that you are wondering what the importance of precious metals in printed circuit boards actually is, we have looked into it further for you.
Why are precious metals used?
There are a number of reasons why precious metals are used in printed circuit boards. It is therefore important that these materials are recycled so that they can be reused for other applications. So do you still have old equipment lying around that you no longer use? Then hand them in! Return printed circuit boards at a recycling company not only contributes to a cleaner and better environment, but also ensures that companies can produce more cost-efficiently. If all goes well, this may ultimately also be reflected in the consumer’s wallet.
Which precious metals are used?
If we look at which precious metals are used in printed circuit boards, we see that gold is number one. Gold is used to protect the contact surfaces and also the connectors on the printed circuit board. It is important that the connection is stable and good. In addition, gold has a low resistance and does not react with other metals. The perfect choice for use on printed circuit boards. In addition to gold, silver and copper are also widely used, mainly because their conductivity is high. Good to know: copper is not a precious metal, but it is very often combined with gold or silver, so it should certainly not be missing from this list.
Protection against corrosion and oxidation
You can imagine that corrosion and oxidation are killing your devices. This is the main reason why precious metals are used. Especially if we look at zinc, for example, it has an extremely good repellent effect when it comes to protecting against moisture, but also against possible chemicals. This includes simple devices such as our telephone, but also printed circuit boards in machines in damp production areas. So you can imagine that it is an indispensable material when producing printed circuit boards for both small and large devices.
Electrical conductivity
The operation of a printed circuit board is mainly through the conduction of current. This is therefore another important reason why precious metals are chosen. So you can imagine that copper is a lot better conductor than when you use plastic, which is not conductive. Choosing these metals allows signals and current to flow effectively through the PCB paths, optimizing the performance of the PCB.
