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 printed circuit boards through holdes. Processes involving colloids or conducting polymers have been particularly important front runners. In this paper the scientific and technical aspects of plating through holes are described and discussed. Methods which have been recently used to examine these processes (in particular scanning probe microscopies) are also discussed.