PGMs in Electronics: Palladium, Ruthenium and Platinum

Palladium (Pd, atomic number 46, CAS 7440-05-3), ruthenium and platinum are the three platinum group metals with the largest role in electronics, together making up most of the 1.25 million troy ounces of total PGM electronics demand Johnson Matthey recorded for 2025, up about 100,000 oz on 2024. Where does each metal actually sit inside a device? Palladium anchors capacitors, connector plating and hybrid circuit tracks, ruthenium is moving from thick-film resistors into the semiconductor interconnects that replace copper, and platinum carries hard disk media and the sputtering targets that build advanced chips. Iridium and rhodium fill smaller, specialized roles alongside the big three, from crystal-growth crucibles to semiconductor process thermocouples.

Where Are PGMs Used in Electronics?#

All six platinum group metals see material use in electronics, and Johnson Matthey's May 2026 PGM Market Report states the map plainly: "All the PGM see material use in the electronics industry, particularly in hard disks (platinum and ruthenium), in passive electronic components such as capacitors and resistors (palladium and ruthenium), in the plating of connectors and lead-frames (mainly palladium, with some platinum), in crucibles for growing single crystals used in telecommunications and other applications (mainly iridium, with some platinum), and in thermocouples used in semiconductor production (platinum and rhodium)." That spread sits inside the broader family of industrial applications of platinum group metals, which spans autocatalysts, fuel cells and nitric acid gauzes alongside electronics. The table below sets out that map application by application, naming a primary and, where one exists, a secondary metal for each duty.

The PGM-by-Application Map#

Palladium's main electronics roles are multilayer ceramic capacitors and connector plating, ruthenium's are thick-film resistors and, increasingly, semiconductor interconnects, and platinum's are hard disk media and sputtering targets. Iridium and rhodium fill two smaller, specific niches: iridium in crystal-growth crucibles and OLED emitter dopants, rhodium alongside platinum in semiconductor process thermocouples and in some connector plating.

Where to Find Palladium in Electronics Boards#

Palladium in a scrapped circuit board concentrates in three places: multilayer ceramic capacitors, connector and lead-frame plating, and hybrid integrated circuit tracks. All three forms are small in mass per board, which is why component-level sorting, not visual inspection, drives recovery value.

• Multilayer ceramic capacitors carry palladium in their internal electrode layers, alternating with the ceramic dielectric, though most mainstream consumer boards now use cheaper nickel or copper electrodes instead.
• Connector and lead-frame plating carries a thin palladium or palladium-nickel layer as a lower-cost stand-in for gold.
• Hybrid integrated circuits use silver-palladium paste to print their conductive tracks directly onto a ceramic substrate.

PGMs in AI and Semiconductor Manufacturing (Ruthenium Interconnects, Data Centres)#

PGM demand from AI data center construction is now a named driver of electronics demand: Johnson Matthey headlines that "Data centre construction lifted PGM use in hard disks," attributing the recovery to a boom in storage demand tied to building data centers for artificial intelligence software. WPIC separately reports that hard disk drive manufacturers' production capacity is "fully committed" through 2026 on high-performance-computing storage demand.

Ruthenium Interconnects: Replacing Copper Below 10 Nanometers#

Ruthenium is moving into semiconductor interconnect metallization because copper interconnects fail to scale efficiently below about 10-nanometer line widths, and ruthenium thin films deposited by chemical vapor deposition and atomic layer deposition are a leading replacement. SFA (Oxford)/IPA describe the mechanism directly: "Ruthenium precursors are also used for chemical vapor deposition of ruthenium metal on a nm scale, where such films are used as interconnect materials in very small device architectures. Ruthenium is expected to play an increasing role as device miniaturisation continues." SFA/IPA frame this as ruthenium's most important future electronics vector, ahead even of its existing role in thick-film resistors and hard disk underlayers. No production-volume figure exists yet for interconnects specifically; the effect currently shows up inside ruthenium's broader electronics demand line rather than as its own reported segment.

Hard Disk Drives and the AI Data Centre Storage Boom#

Hard disk media use a CoCrPt-oxide granular alloy for the recording layer and ruthenium in the underlayer, both deposited by sputtering, and the 2025-2026 shift to HAMR (Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording) affects the two metals in opposite directions. On platinum, WPIC reports that "the shift towards superior storage density and higher-capacity drives has led to a notable increase in metal loadings per unit," so HAMR is platinum-positive. On ruthenium, SFA/IPA instead warn that the metal "may face technology-driven substitution in hard disk drives, as alternative HAMR technology advances… The ruthenium content in these new media is expected to be lower than in current technologies," a per-unit thrifting effect, not a platinum-style gain. The fuller picture of ruthenium and platinum in hard disk drives, including sputtering-target purity and the underlayer stack, is covered on its own page. Volume growth is currently beating that per-unit ruthenium thrift: Johnson Matthey forecasts ruthenium electrical and electronics demand of 435 koz in 2026, up from 413 koz in 2025.

Semiconductor Sputtering Targets#

Platinum sputtering targets deposit diffusion barriers, contact layers and electrodes in semiconductor devices, at purity grades from 99.5% up to 99.99%, and platinum-tungsten alloy targets serve some of the same duties. WPIC's Q1 2026 Platinum Quarterly states that "the progression of advanced process nodes has necessitated a higher reliance on high-purity platinum sputtering targets," and Metals Focus has revised its 2026 platinum electrical forecast up 20% to 119 koz, naming semiconductors "the primary growth engine for demand within the electronics sector for the near future." WPIC also notes that elevated platinum prices have prompted the industry to explore cheaper alternatives, but judges a full technical transition unlikely in the short term.

Palladium in Capacitors, Plating and Contacts#

Palladium's historic anchor in electronics, the multilayer ceramic capacitor, has already been displaced in most mainstream applications by cheaper base-metal (nickel and copper) electrodes. SFA/IPA describe the shift directly: palladium "has already been displaced in many cases by far cheaper base-metal electrodes such as nickel and copper," with use holding up mainly where reliability matters more than material cost. Connector and lead-frame plating and hybrid integrated circuit tracks have proven more durable palladium applications than capacitors, because they compete against gold on cost rather than against a cheaper base metal on function.

MLCC Capacitors: A Shrinking Application#

Palladium MLCCs survive mainly in automotive engine management, defense and aerospace electronics, broadcasting, medical devices and high-reliability consumer electronics, where performance and durability outweigh raw-material cost. That contraction is the concrete mechanism behind Johnson Matthey's wider observation on palladium in MLCC capacitors: palladium's total electrical and electronics demand line has fallen from consistently above 3 million oz a year in the 1990s to under 1.5 million oz today, even as the 2025 figure (535 koz) still makes palladium the largest single PGM on that specific demand line.

Connector and Contact Plating#

Palladium and palladium-nickel electroplate connectors and lead-frames as a lower-cost alternative to gold, while rhodium-ruthenium coatings outperform gold plating in some harsh-use consumer electronics contacts. Citing Umicore, SFA/IPA state that "Rh-Ru coatings are considered superior to gold-plated contacts in some harsh-use consumer electronics applications," and separately that "Ruthenium is one of the most effective hardeners for platinum and palladium contact alloys, providing high wear resistance." Three duty types drive the choice of plating:

• Everyday connectors favor palladium-nickel plating as a lower-cost alternative to gold.
• Charging contacts favor rhodium-ruthenium coatings for their wear resistance in harsh-use consumer electronics.
• Lead-frames use palladium as a direct gold substitute.

Substitution risk in this application is moderate to high, since gold, palladium, rhodium, platinum and ruthenium plating systems all compete for the same duty, and the winner in any given connector depends on its expected duty cycle and operating environment rather than on one metal's properties alone.

Iridium in Crucibles and OLED Displays#

Iridium's two smaller electronics roles are crystal-growth crucibles for high-melting oxides and phosphorescent emitter dopants in OLED displays, both volumetrically minor next to hard disks and capacitors. Iridium crucibles handle Czochralski and Bridgman growth of high-melting oxide single crystals, such as sapphire, YAG and spinel, for LEDs, lasers and telecom components. Heraeus states that iridium crucibles operate "at temperatures up to approx. 2300 °C," and iridium is chosen over far cheaper molybdenum or tungsten because it withstands that temperature in an oxidizing atmosphere without contaminating the crystal. The 2020-2021 iridium price spike already forced real substitution here: Johnson Matthey records that Chinese manufacturers of iridium and platinum crucibles for crystal growth adopted platinum for some crucible formats. Crucible metal is a capital inventory rather than a consumable, recovered and re-fabricated at the end of each growth campaign, so demand here is lumpy from one capacity build to the next rather than tracking output volume directly.

Cyclometalated iridium(III) complexes are the phosphorescent dopants that let OLEDs harvest triplet excitons, raising internal quantum efficiency toward 100% versus around 25% for pure fluorescence. The archetype is fac-tris(2-phenylpyridine)iridium(III), doped into a host matrix at a low single-digit percentage (one published device reaches an optimized 5% doping concentration) within an emissive layer only tens of nanometers thick. Iridium mass per OLED panel is therefore very small, and SFA/IPA list iridium complexes in OLED displays last among iridium's electrical uses, after crucibles, spark plugs and contacts, so the application is strategically interesting rather than a major demand driver.

Selling Electronics Scrap and Related PGM Pages#

Electronic scrap is bought and sold on its recoverable palladium content, board type by board type, not by weight of the whole device, because palladium concentration varies by orders of magnitude between a power-supply board and a simple connector cable. A board dense with multilayer ceramic capacitors and gold-alternative plated connectors carries far more recoverable palladium than a board of mostly bulk silicon and plastic, which is why buyers sort and assay by board type before pricing a lot.

PGM Electronics Demand, 2021-2026#

Palladium is the largest single platinum group metal on Johnson Matthey's electrical and electronics demand line, at 535 koz in 2025 against ruthenium's 413 koz and platinum's 261 koz, with iridium and rhodium far smaller at 33 koz and 9 koz. Johnson Matthey forecasts 538, 435 and 277 koz respectively for 2026, keeping palladium ahead of ruthenium on this specific line even as ruthenium's total industrial footprint, across chemical, electrochemical and other uses combined, is larger than its electronics slice alone: Johnson Matthey's ruthenium total industrial demand reached 1,265 koz in 2025, of which the 413 koz electronics line is only one part alongside chemical catalysis and electrochemical uses.

Electrical and electronics demand, koz, Johnson Matthey PGM Market Report, May 2026.

PGMs in Electronics FAQ#

What Electronics Have the Most Palladium?#

Three component types hold the most palladium in a typical electronic device:

• Multilayer ceramic capacitors
• Connector and lead-frame plating
• Hybrid integrated circuits

Devices with dense passive-component counts, such as smartphone motherboards and automotive control units, carry more of these components than simple consumer electronics, so they concentrate more palladium per unit even though the metal is a small fraction of total device weight.

How Do You Identify Palladium in Electronics?#

Palladium in electronics is usually plated onto connectors and lead-frames or alloyed into small ceramic capacitors, not present as a visible solid piece, which is why identification needs component-level testing rather than a visual check. A palladium test kit or an X-ray fluorescence scan on individual boards and components gives a reliable reading; guessing from a board's color or size does not, because palladium plating is typically only micrometers thick.

Why Is Ruthenium Used in Semiconductor Interconnects?#

Ruthenium is used in semiconductor interconnects because copper interconnects cannot scale efficiently below about 10-nanometer line widths, and ruthenium thin films fill that role as devices shrink further. Copper's own resistivity rises sharply at these dimensions due to electron scattering at grain boundaries and interfaces, while ruthenium's thinner effective diffusion-barrier requirement and CVD/ALD compatibility make it a practical replacement at the most advanced process nodes.

Is Palladium Still Used in Modern Smartphones and Computers?#

Palladium is still used in modern electronics, but in a narrower set of applications than in the 1990s: Johnson Matthey's electrical and electronics demand line for palladium was 535 koz in 2025 against consistently over 3 million oz a year in the 1990s. Modern smartphones and computers still carry palladium in select multilayer ceramic capacitors and in connector or lead-frame plating, even where cheaper nickel and copper electrodes have taken over the bulk of mainstream capacitor demand.

What Are Palladium's, Ruthenium's and Platinum's Symbol, Atomic Number and CAS Number?#

Palladium (Pd), element 46 carries the symbol Pd, atomic number 46 and CAS number 7440-05-3.

Ruthenium (Ru), element 44 carries the symbol Ru, atomic number 44 and CAS number 7440-18-8, and platinum carries the symbol Pt, atomic number 78 and CAS number 7440-06-4.