Site-selective electroless plating of copper on a poly(ethylene terephthalate) surface modified with a self-assembled monolayer

Abstract

A technique to obtain the site-selective electroless deposition of copper on poly(ethylene terephthalate) substrates was studied in our research. The substrates were first treated with ultraviolet light. Then, on the surfaces of the substrates, self-assembled monolayers were grafted. The self-assembled monolayers were further modified by vacuum ultraviolet irradiation through a photomask, thus forming regions with different functional groups. Copper finally deposited on the specifical regions. As confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the copper micropatterning possessed excellent selectivity and high fidelity. The feature size of copper micropatterning was approximately 2μm and the diameter of copper particles was in the range of 50–100nm.