In high-speed backplane connectors, optical modules, precision electronic components, and automotive electronics, gold-plated copper terminals are core components for signal transmission and electrical connections. Their surface gold (Au) plating ensures low contact resistance and excellent oxidation resistance, while the base copper (Cu) provides superior electrical and thermal conductivity. However, this "golden combination" is a typical example of "highly reflective materials" in traditional laser welding—both gold and copper have an absorption rate of less than 5% for common infrared lasers (wavelength 1064nm) at room temperature. A large amount of laser energy is reflected, resulting not only in shallow weld pools and severe spatter, easily leading to porosity and hot cracks, but also potentially damaging the laser or surrounding precision plastic components, directly threatening product yield and reliability.
Fly Laser, leveraging years of technological accumulation, has introduced cutting-edge green laser spot welding technology, fundamentally changing the processing logic of gold-plated copper terminals and providing a one-stop solution for overcoming the high-reflectivity welding yield challenges in high-speed backplane connectors and precision electronics.
I. Pain Points in Soldering Gold-Plated Copper Terminals: The "High Reflectivity Dilemma" of Infrared Lasers High-speed backplane connectors, SFP/QSFP optical modules, and other products often feature terminal pins that are "small, dense, and thin": the pad size may be less than 0.2mm, the spacing only 0.25mm, and the gold layer thickness is extremely thin. Traditional infrared laser soldering has significant limitations:
Extremely low absorption rate, resulting in significant energy waste: At room temperature, copper's absorption rate of infrared laser is only about 5%, and gold is also a highly reflective material. Most of the laser energy is reflected, requiring extremely high peak power to barely form a molten pool. This is not only inefficient but also more likely to cause "cold solder joints" or "vacuum soldering."
Extremely unstable soldering process: As the temperature rises, copper's absorption rate of infrared laser increases dramatically from 5% at room temperature to 20% near the melting point and even 60% at the boiling point. This drastic change in absorption rate causes violent fluctuations in the heat input of the molten pool, easily leading to spatter, porosity, and cracks, and making it difficult to control the size and penetration consistency of the solder joint.
High risk of thermal damage: Gold-plated copper terminals are often injection molded or located very close to a plastic substrate. Infrared lasers, due to their low absorption rate, result in a wide heat-affected zone, easily burning the plastic and damaging the gold plating, causing short circuits or signal integrity failures.
II. A Technological Breakthrough with Green Lasers: The "Golden Wavelength" Determined by Physical Properties The 515nm/532nm green lasers used by Feilai Laser are a key technological path to overcoming the welding challenges of gold-plated copper terminals. Its core advantage lies in the physical match between the wavelength and highly reflective metals:
Absorption rate increased by 8 times, eliminating spatter at the source: At room temperature, copper absorbs over 40% of green light, more than 8 times higher than infrared lasers. This extremely high initial absorption rate means the welding process no longer relies on intense "penetration" energy, resulting in a stable heat input to the molten pool. This not only significantly reduces spatter and porosity but also ensures high consistency and roundness of the solder joints, maintaining a welding yield consistently above 99.5%.
Significantly reduced heat-affected zone, protecting plating and substrate: The green laser beam boasts superior quality, can be focused into a smaller spot, and has extremely high energy density. Under Feilai Laser's real-time power closed-loop feedback control, output stability can reach within ±1%. Laser energy is precisely confined to the solder joint area, keeping the heat-affected zone to a minimum, completely avoiding excessive melting and diffusion of the gold layer and thermal deformation of the plastic substrate, ensuring the signal transmission performance of the terminals.
Practical Results: Fly Laser's green laser spot welding solution can easily achieve precision welding with extremely small pads of 0.2mm and narrow pitches of 0.25mm, completely eliminating defects such as bridging and cold solder joints. The solder joints are aesthetically pleasing and full, requiring no subsequent polishing.
III. Fly Laser's Core Advantages: Precision Control Enables High-Yield Mass Production
For manufacturing scenarios such as optical modules and high-speed backplane connectors, Feilai Laser has deeply integrated green laser technology with intelligent manufacturing:
Micron-level Visual Positioning: Employing high-precision CCD vision and AI algorithms, the system automatically identifies the position of gold-plated terminals, accurately captures and corrects minute deviations in incoming materials, ensuring that every laser beam lands in the designated position. Zero-damage, low-heat input: Employing non-contact processing eliminates mechanical stress. For scenarios where terminals are adjacent to the plastic substrate, Feilai Laser's green light welding solution precisely controls heat input below 8J/mm², reducing the heat-affected zone to only 1/3 of traditional processes, completely resolving the issue of plastic burns.
End-to-end intelligent closed-loop process: Integrating pre-welding capture and correction, real-time adjustment during welding, and post-welding visual inspection for comprehensive management. Through power closed-loop feedback and AI algorithms, defective solder joints are automatically eliminated, ensuring extremely high consistency in mass production.
Strong compatibility, adaptable to multiple product types: The equipment supports rapid model changeover. With offline programming and a parameter library, welding parameters for different terminals can be quickly switched. Whether it's thin-walled copper shells, gold-plated terminals, or irregularly shaped pins, all can be stably handled through the same system.
IV. Industry Applications and Value Validation Feilai Laser's green-light precision welding solution has been widely applied in several high-end manufacturing fields:
High-speed connectors: At leading companies such as Dingtong Technology and Amphenol, the green-light welding solution achieves highly reliable copper-copper and copper-aluminum terminal connections, with joint strength exceeding 85% of the substrate, effectively ensuring stable transmission of 448Gb/s high-speed signals.
Optical modules (SFP/QSFP/800G): Addressing the trend towards miniaturization and high density in optical modules, Fly Laser's solution, after deployment at companies such as Luxshare, has increased welding yield to over 99.5%, with a single-unit daily capacity exceeding 150,000 points, fully validating its ultimate precision and stability in the field of precision electronics.
Conclusion The high reflectivity of gold-plated copper terminals has long been a major obstacle to improving the welding yield of precision electronics. Fly laser specializes in precision laser welding, focusing on green laser technology. Leveraging its physical characteristics of "high absorption, low spatter, and minimal damage," combined with high-precision vision and intelligent closed-loop control, Fly laser has truly overcome the yield challenge of high-reflection welding for gold-plated copper terminals.
Fly laser—empowering high-reliability precision electronic welding with green laser technology, providing enterprises with a one-stop solution for high-yield, high-efficiency, and high-stability precision laser spot welding.
Fly laser—focusing on precision laser welding, overcoming the high-reflection welding challenge with green laser technology, and helping precision manufacturing improve quality and efficiency.
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This article was provided by the Flylaser technical team. Please indicate the source when reprinting. Hotline: 0769-22255585 Website: www.flylaser.cn
