THE USE OF CONDUCTING POLYMERS AND COLLOIDS IN THE THROUGH HOLE PLATING OF PRINTED-CIRCUIT BOARDS

There has been a considerable amount of activity in the last few years aimed at the development of alternative methods for the plating of pr inted circuit boards through holdes. Processes involving colloids or c onducting polymers have been particularly important front runners. In this paper the scientific and technical aspects of plating through hol es are described and discussed. Methods which have been recently used to examine these processes (in particular scanning probe microscopies) are also discussed.