Activating is a process used in the PCB industry to form a smooth, full-coverage coating of conductive ink on the inside of all drilled through-holes in a printed circuit board. The purpose of this process is to ensure that every hole wall is coated with ink to support reliable through-hole electroplating. The activating process involves filling all the holes with conductive ink and then removing the excess ink using a squeegee. The excess ink can be pushed to areas of the board that show light through the holes or where the walls of large diameter holes do not appear to have been totally covered. This process must be repeated for each layer of the PCB, including blind or buried vias. The term “holewall activation” specifically refers to the activating process for the hole walls in a PCB.