Method of making a printed wiring board with conformally plated circuit traces

A PWB or multilayer board with circuit traces is treated by a process that serves to reduce the incident of failure of the board. The process includes the steps of applying a thin commoning layer of copper onto a catalyzed surface of the board substrate and the circuit lines. A photoresist is then applied over the commoning layer after which the photoresist is removed only from the commoning material over the circuit lines. A thin layer of a more noble metal, such as nickel, is electrodeposited over the exposed conductive layer. This is followed by a gold layer electrodeposited over the nickel in close registry therewith. The process provides the traces with a conforming nickel/gold layer that extends down the side of the traces. This reduces the tendency of a subsequent copper etch step from undercutting the nickel/gold, thereby causing slivers that could cause short circuiting between adjacent circuit patterns.