If the Ni is exposed to air, it oxidizes, causing bad adhesion.

If the nickel is evaporated or sputtered, put a 1000A of gold on top without
breaking vacuum.

If the nickel is electroplated, go directly from the nickel bath, into
water, than into the gold plating bath without letting the nickel surface
get dry.

This should fix your adhesion problems.

David Nemeth

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of P.E.M. Kuijpers
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2007 1:50 AM
To: General MEMS discussion
Subject: Re: [mems-talk] Au electroplating

Hello Kris,

We did  also electroplating of Au (sulphite based)on Ni, but we observed a
very bad adhesion of Au onto the Ni seedlayer.
Did you observed this also or do you have a special pre-treatment to
overcome this?