A ceramic electronic component that includes a ceramic main body, a coating film and external electrodes on the surface of the ceramic main body. The coating film is selectively formed on the surface of the ceramic main body by applying, to the surface of the ceramic main body, a resin-containing solution that etches the surface of the ceramic main body so as to ionize constituent elements of the ceramic main body. The coating film includes a resin and the constituent elements of the ceramic main body, which were ionized and deposited from the ceramic main body.

Methods for forming thin, pinhole-free conformal metal layers on both conducting and non-conducting surfaces, where the morphology and properties of the metal layers are tuned to meet desired parameters by adjusting the concentration of ionic liquids during the deposition process. The formed metal films contain tunable properties for solar and electronic use and provide specific advantages for non-conducting surfaces, which are otherwise unsuitable for electroplating without the presence of the formed metal films. The disclosed methods do not require the presence of a voltage or external electric field but form the metal films through an electroless technique using electrostatic interactions between negatively charged nanoparticles. In addition, the disclosed methods are compatible with solution phase processing and eliminate the need to transfer the surfaces into a vacuum chamber for a chemical or physical vapor deposition to form a metal layer.

A process for application of metal on a substrate surface comprises applying a mixture of a solvent, a polymerizable monomer, and a photoinitiator on a substrate surface, wherein the photoinitiator does not form two phases together with the monomer and the solvent, i.e. it forms an amorphous mixture without any crystals. The monomer is able to polymerize to a polymer comprising at least one carboxylic group. Thereafter the solvent is evaporated. Polymerization is induced by irradiating the applied dried mixture. Ions are applied and reduced to metal and thereafter further metal can be deposited. The method can be used in industrial processes, both 2D and 3D surfaces can be coated with metal. Materials sensitive to standard grafting chemicals and/or polymers containing halogen atoms can be coated.

A substrate processing apparatus can allow palladium atoms to be coupled to a surface of a substrate without performing a silane coupling processing with a silane coupling agent on the substrate. In a substrate processing apparatus 1, a plating unit 4 includes a catalyst solution supply unit 43a and a plating liquid supply unit 45. The catalyst solution supply unit 43a forms a catalyst layer 91 on a surface of a substrate W1 by supplying, onto the substrate W1, a catalyst solution L1 containing a complex of a palladium ion and a monocyclic 5- or 6-membered aromatic or aliphatic heterocyclic compound having one or two nitrogen atoms as a heteroatom. After the catalyst solution L1 is supplied, the plating liquid supply unit 45 forms an electroless plating layer 92 on the catalyst layer 91 formed on a substrate W2 by supplying a plating liquid M1 onto the substrate W2.

Process of depositing a metallic pattern on a medium, said process comprising: generating pulsed laser beams from a pulsed laser source, wherein the laser beams have a wavelength for which the medium is substantially transparent, focussing the laser beams onto a target layer comprising inorganic particles, dispersed in a laser light degradable/combustible organic matrix, said target layer producing ejecta in response to an interaction of said laser beams and said target layer, accumulating at least a portion of said ejecta on said medium within the desired pattern, providing the pattern by electroless metal plating. The invention further relates to a transparent medium comprising a metallic pattern wherein the adhesion between the metallic pattern and the medium is at least 5N/cm.

A solution including a precious metal nanoparticle and a polymer polymerized from at least two monomers, (1) a monomer having two or more carboxyl groups or carboxyl acid salt groups and (2) a monomer which has electron-available features. The solution is useful for a catalyst of a process for electroless plating a metal on non-conductive surface.

Methods for the deposition of silver-comprising films on nonconducting substrates, and, more particularly, to deposition of such films that are very thin, are provided. The surface of nonconducting substrates is modified with a superabsorbent polymer to increase silver deposition when compared to a non-modified surface. Also provided are films produced using a swelling agent, whereby porosity of the surface of the nonconducting substrate is increased, thereby permitting increased silver deposition when compared to an unmodified surface.

There is provided a novel, environmentally friendly primer for use in the pretreatment steps in electroless plating, which can be easily used in fewer steps with a lower cost. A primer for forming a metallic plating film on a substrate by electroless plating, the primer including: a hyperbranched polymer having an ammonium group at a molecular terminal and a weight-average molecular weight of 500 to 5,000,000; and a metal fine particle.

There is disclosed a method for application of a metal on a substrate, comprising the steps: a) contacting at least a part of the surface of the substrate with at least one selected from: i) at least one initiator, and a polymerizable unit with the ability to undergo a chemical reaction to form a polymer, said polymer comprising at least one charged group, and ii) a polymer comprising at least one charged group. The contacting is achieved by contacting a pad with a plate comprising the at least one substance and subsequently contacting the pad with the surface of the substrate, thereby transferring the at least one substance to the surface of the substrate. Subsequently a metal layer is produced on the surface. Advantages include that the compactness of the applied metal layer increases compared to similar methods according to the prior art.

A subject matter of the invention is a process for the formation of nickel silicide or of cobalt silicide, comprising the stages consisting in: exposing the surface of the silicon-comprising substrate with an aqueous solution comprising from 0.1 mM to 10 mM of gold ions and from 0.6 M to 3.0 M of fluorine ions for a duration of between 5 seconds and 5 minutes, depositing by an electroless route, on the activated substrate, a layer essentially composed of nickel or of cobalt, applying a rapid thermal annealing at a temperature of between 300 C. and 750 C., so as to form the nickel silicide or the cobalt silicide. The aqueous solution comprises a surface-active agent chosen from the compounds comprising at least one anionic or nonionic polar group and an alkyl chain comprising from 10 to 16 carbon atoms. This process essentially has applications in the manufacture of NAND memories and photovoltaic cells.