Granted in the Metal Finishing Field Printed copies of patents are furnished by the Patent and Trademark Office for $3.00 each. Address orders to: Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, Washington, D.C. 20231.

ELECTROPLATING OR ETCHING PLANT PULSE POWER SUPPLY U.S. Patent 6,179,984. Jan. 30, 2001 M. Maurer, assignor to Atotech Deutschland GmbH, Germany

A method for supplying pulse cur- rent to any one or more electro- lytic cells, connected in parallel and having anodes and cathodes, in vertical or horizontal electro- plating or etching systems.

FLUOROBORATE ELECTROPLATING BATHS U.S. Patent 6,179,985. Jan. 30, 2001 H.D. Gillman et al., assignors to Technic Inc., Cranston, R.I., and Specialty Chemical Systems Inc., Royersford, Pa.

A method of improving the plat- ing performance of an aqueous fluoroborate-based electroplating bath comprising adding an effec- tive amount of a salt of an alkyl and/or alkanol sulfonic acid to en- hance the performance of the bath, wherein the salt is selected from the group consisting of alkali metal, alkaline earth metal, and ammonium or substituted ammo- nium salt.

ACID CLEANING OF A COPPER- INVAR-COPPER L A M I N A T E U.S. Patent 6,179,990. Jan. 30, 2001 R.T. Galasco et al., assignors to International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, N.Y.

A method for immersing a cop- per-ferronickel alloy-copper lam- inate in an acid solution without inducing a galvanic etching of the ferronickel alloy.

COATING C O M P O S I T I O N U.S. Patent 6,180,175. Jan. 30, 2001 M. Saika et al., assignors to Kansai Paint Co. Ltd., Hyogo-ken, Japan

An organic solvent-based coating composition comprising a vinyl polymer having hydroxyl groups and alkoxysilyl groups; a polyol compound; a polyisocyanate com- pound; a silanol group-forming catalyst; and a u re than iza t ion catalyst.

SURFACE TREATMENT C O M P O S I T I O N FOR METAL U.S. Patent 6,180,177. Jan. 30, 2001 Y. Nagashima and H. Hayashi, assignors to Nihon Parkerizing Co. Ltd., Tokyo

A surface t rea tment agent for me- tallic material, characterized by consisting essentially of the fol- lowing components dissolved in a water-soluble medium: a cationic component, which consists of di- valent or higher valent metallic ions selected from the group con- sisting of manganese, cobalt, zinc, magnes ium, nickel, iron, t i ta- nium, aluminum, and zirconium; at least one acid component se- lected from the group consisting offluoro-acid, which contains four or more fluorine atoms, and one or more elements selected from the group consisting of t i tanium, zir- conium, silicon, hafnium, alumi- num and boron, and acetic acid; a silane coupling-agent component; and one or more water-soluble polymer components.

AQUEOUS T W O - C O M P O N E N T POLYURETHANE U.S. Patent 6,180,180. Jan. 30, 2001

H. Hintze-Bri~ning et al., assignors to BASF Coatings AG, Muenster- Hiltrup, Germany

An aqueous two-component poly- u r e t h a n e coat ing composi t ion comprising a binder of at least one water-soluble or water-dispers- ible polyester resin, at least one water-soluble or water-dispers- ible polyurethane resin, and a free polyisocyanate component as crosslinking agent.

COMPOSITE COATING U.S. Patent 6,180,181. Jan. 30, 2001 C.A. Verardi et al., assignors to PPG Industries Ohio Inc., Cleveland

A method for forming a composite coating comprising applying an aqueous primary coating composi- tion to at least a portion of a sur- face of a substrate, the primary coating composition containing at least one thermosettable disper- sion of microparticles; applying a secondary coating composition without substantially curing the primary coating to form a sub- s t a n t i a l l y uncu red secondary coating thereon; and applying a clear coating composition without substantially curing the second- ary coating to form a substantially uncured composite coating thereon.

COPPER METALLIZATION OF USLI BY ELECTROLESS PROCESS U.S. Patent 6,180,523. Jan. 30, 2001 C-Y. Lee and T-H. Huang, assignors to Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan

A method of fabrication of a con- tact to a silicon substrate using electroless deposition comprising

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