The zincating was conducted on the Al pads (100 x 100 x 1.5 mu m(3)) of silicon chips. Each chip consists of 400 Al pads. The zincating deposition conducted on the Al pads was a three-time multiple zincating process. The first-time zincating lead to larger independent particle deposits, i.e. of poor coverage. The second-time zincating caused very fine, dense particles. The deposits became a continuous him, with only a few vacancies after the third-time zincating. The acidic etching steps between the consecutive zincating operations, tend to refine the deposit nodules. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results revealed that the surface of the as-deposited zincating layer was oxidized, while the intermediate acidic etching tended to eliminate the oxidized surface and lead to elemental zinc.