Ultrasonically enabled low tempertaure electroless plating for sustainable electronic manufacture

Electroless copper plating is an important process for the metallization of non-conductive substrates and is therefore widely utilized throughout the electronics industry. Electroless processes are characterised by high temperature operation and although the effect of ultrasound on electroless plating has been studied for many years, its use as an enabling technology to reduce the electroless plating operating temperature has not been investigated. In this study a catalysed electroless copper process was utilized and it was found that the use of low frequency ultrasound under optimised conditions can lead to a reduction in electroless copper plating temperature.