Laser-induced prenucleation of alumina for electroless plating

This paper deals with the deposition of palladium from decomposition of a thin palladium acetate layer on rough and porous alumina ceramic surfaces by irradiating it with a UV excimer laser. The palladium acetate layer was formed from a combination of propyl glycol methyl ether acetate solvent and photoresist, and the undecomposed material was removed with the photoresist remover. The discontinuous palladium cluster film formed by the technique was used as seed for electroless coatings. Different patterns were obtained using point focus as well as projection pattering method and subsequently plated with adhesive layers of electroless Ni-B coating

Selective metallization of alumina by laser

Nickel has been selectively deposited on an alumina substrate without any pretreatment from a flow of a nickel acetate solution using the focused beam of an excimer laser. Nickel spots as well as nickel lines were drawn and subsequently plated with an electroless Ni-B coating. Excellent adhesion of the metallized layers was achieved, since with laser irradiation, both etching and deposition took place simultaneously