Adhesion-Enhanced Flexible Conductive Metal Patterns on Polyimide Substrate Through Direct Writing Catalysts with Novel Surface-Modification Electroless Deposition

An efficient and universal method via direct writing catalysts with novel surface-modification electroless deposition is developed to prepare high-adhesion, low-resistance and excellent-flexibility metal patterns on flexible polyimide (PI) substrates. Through the surface modification of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), the PI substrates are capable of complexing silver ion catalysts. After that, the silver ion catalysts are treated with plasma, which could catalyze the electroless deposition of conductive metal (copper, nickel and silver) patterns. Compared with the other processes, this method presents an industrially viable way to fabricate metal conductive patterns and circuits on polymer substrate for flexible electronics at low cost, simple operation, time-saving and without the needs of sophisticated equipment.