Laser-induced selective copper plating of polypropylene surface

K. Ratautas; M. Gedvilas; I. Stankevičiene; A. Jagminienė; E. Norkus; N. Li Pira; S. Sinopoli; U. Emanuele; G. Račiukaitis

doi:10.1117/12.2212431

14 March 2016 Laser-induced selective copper plating of polypropylene surface

K. Ratautas, M. Gedvilas, I. Stankevičiene, A. Jagminienė, E. Norkus, N. Li Pira, S. Sinopoli, U. Emanuele, G. Račiukaitis

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9735, Laser Applications in Microelectronic and Optoelectronic Manufacturing (LAMOM) XXI; 973507 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2212431
Event: SPIE LASE, 2016, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Laser writing for selective plating of electro-conductive lines for electronics has several significant advantages, compared to conventional printed circuit board technology. Firstly, this method is faster and cheaper at the prototyping stage. Secondly, material consumption is reduced, because it works selectively. However, the biggest merit of this method is potentiality to produce moulded interconnect device, enabling to create electronics on complex 3D surfaces, thus saving space, materials and cost of production. There are two basic techniques of laser writing for selective plating on plastics: the laser-induced selective activation (LISA) and laser direct structuring (LDS). In the LISA method, pure plastics without any dopant (filler) can be used. In the LDS method, special fillers are mixed in the polymer matrix. These fillers are activated during laser writing process, and, in the next processing step, the laser modified area can be selectively plated with metals.

In this work, both methods of the laser writing for the selective plating of polymers were investigated and compared. For LDS approach, new material: polypropylene with carbon-based additives was tested using picosecond and nanosecond laser pulses. Different laser processing parameters (laser pulse energy, scanning speed, the number of scans, pulse durations, wavelength and overlapping of scanned lines) were applied in order to find out the optimal regime of activation. Areal selectivity tests showed a high plating resolution. The narrowest width of a copper-plated line was less than 23 μm. Finally, our material was applied to the prototype of the electronic circuit board on a 2D surface.

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K. Ratautas, M. Gedvilas, I. Stankevičiene, A. Jagminienė, E. Norkus, N. Li Pira, S. Sinopoli, U. Emanuele, and G. Račiukaitis "Laser-induced selective copper plating of polypropylene surface", Proc. SPIE 9735, Laser Applications in Microelectronic and Optoelectronic Manufacturing (LAMOM) XXI, 973507 (14 March 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2212431

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