Laser-induced selective metal plating on PP and PC/ABS polymers surface

Fabrication of circuit traces is the most challenging task in the Molded Interconnection Device (MID) technology. The technical difficulties which can be met when producing conductive trace are spatial selectiveness and adhesion of a plated metal. On the other hand, the technique used to manufacture circuit should be cost-effective as well. Considering this background, two methods of selective plating induced by a laser are presented here. This manuscript consists of two parts. In the first part, we describe new PP and PC/ABS masterbatch with carbon-based additives for laser direct structuring (LDS) approach. Moreover, the second part of the paper represents a new technology for MID: Selective Surface Activation Induced by Laser (SSAIL). This new technique for selective surface plating enables to use standard plastics without any LDS additives. In both cases, metal deposition was performed by electroless plating. Nanosecond and picosecond lasers were applied for polymer surface treatment. The narrowest width of a copper-plated line was less than 23 μm. The Scotch tape test was applied to measure the adhesion of a plated metal.