Developing improvement technology in pre-etching process for the Shadow Mask quality of flat color TV

Recently CRT is getting flatted, As change of CRT trend from normal type to Flat type, the material of Shadow Mask was also changed from AK(Aluminum Killed) to Invar(Fe-Ni alloy) materials Until now we have used just AK(Aluminum Killed) for normal type TV(not flat type), but main raw material of shadow mask component was changed. . However recently Invar(Fe-Ni alloy) materials, which has advantage of Low Thermal Expansion and High Strength, has been developed as well as applying in mass production as CRT's trend has become more flat and fine pitch. As main raw material of shadow mask component was changed, conditions of process were changed. One of them, the importance of pre-etching process (assistant process for developing & etching) is improved because there are so many particles in the pre-etching bath because of Ni compounds. Since the solubility of Ni in pre-etching solvent is very low related to Fe's, so the compounds of Ni happen to make particles.(the solubility of Fe is twenty times Ni's) that particles happen to make process troubles and NG productions so to clear the particles we had to established high cost filtering system, but it is useless. As time goes by the quantity of particles (Ni compounds) was increased because of the capability of filtering system was not enough, the particles was produced continuous in bath, and it make quality problems. Hence we tried to develop the new pre-etching solution to remove the particles (Ni compounds) and to cost down the filtering system's running cost. But in improving the solution we discovered the new pre-etching solution made the PR developing better. In former solution there were three kinds of chemistry (COOH)2 , H2O2 , H2S04 .first the function of (COOH)2 is drilling the surface of Invar, during this mechanism Ni compounds occurred. Second the function of H202 is removing the PR fringe (half UV exposure zone on PR(PVA)), Third the function of H2S04 is the catalysis of (COOH)2 In those, (COOH)2 was the main reason to make the Ni compounds. So to improve the solutions we had to change (COOH)2 to the other material. the chemistry we improved was a complex chemistry based on H2S04 . after using this chemistry the particles problem was disappeared and there was another advantage cut down the PR fringe. The New solution made the function of H202 better so the PR developing improved. To be direct the catalyst of the new solution helped the H202. anyway First thing after change the solution the quality of shadow Mask for flat color TV was improved & the yield also improved. But the more important thing is how to control the new solution. So we accepted the new concept which was the degree of freshness. The degree of freshness is based on non-reacted solution which was 100% ( the degree of freshness) and calculated the melted Ni quantity as time goes by. So we made the gauging liner plot. In conclusion, many companies tried to make fine pitched Shadow Mask ,generally to make quality jump up it needed a lot of cost & persons .in this case the shift of core material made it possible.