Conformable nickel coating and process for coating an article with a conformable nickel coating

摘要

The present invention is directed to a lead frame in which the metal lead frame substrate is copper, copper alloy, or nickel alloy. The lead frame substrate is coated with a conformable nickel coating that is crack-resistant when the lead frame is bent to an angle of at least 82 degrees with a bend radius of about 150 mu m to about 300 mu m. Bending the lead frame in this manner causes surface deformations in the lead frame substrate. Cracks do not appear through the thickness of the conformable nickel coating of the present invention when the depth of the deformations that result from this bending do not exceed about 5 mu m.