Electroless Plating and Printing Technologies

This chapter describes a positive patterning method, using printing and electroless plating, which allows rapid and low-cost metallization for various applications such as flexible electronics and 3D objects. Taking into consideration the recent works on integrating electroless plating with printing, it presents a review of the general concepts, some examples, and a discussion. The chapter also presents the generally accepted vision regarding the roadmap of functional printing and the interaction with electrochemical micro- and nanotechnologies in general and plating in particular. In addition, it describes the chemical and physical issues in depositing catalytic layers by printing. Following a brief review of the dominant methods and tools, the chapter describes the functional printing used for electroless plating seeding and its potential application for 2D, 2.5D, and 3D printing of passive and active components. Finally, it shows the use of printed silver nanoparticle seed for electroless plating of few metals and their alloys.