The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing composite solder balls that are metallized on the surface and calibrated, these balls comprising a core consisting of a spherical support particle of diameter D.sub.0 made of expanded polystyrene and having an intergranular porosity of at least 50%, and a shell covering said support particle and formed by a plurality of metallic surface layers. The present invention also relates to balls that can be obtained by the method according to the invention, as well as to the use thereof for the assembly of electronic boards.

A method of producing an electroconductive substrate including a base material, and an electroconductive pattern disposed on one main surface side of the base material includes: a step of forming a trench including a bottom surface to which a foundation layer is exposed, and a lateral surface which includes a surface of a trench formation layer, according to an imprint method; and a step of forming an electroconductive pattern layer by growing metal plating from the foundation layer which is exposed to the bottom surface of the trench.

A new method capable of forming a circuit by performing metal plating on a desired portion on a substrate through a small number of steps regardless of the kind of the substrate. A method for forming a circuit on a substrate characterized in that when forming a circuit by plating on a substrate, the method includes steps of applying a coating film containing a silicone oligomer and a catalyst metal onto the substrate, and thereafter, performing an activation treatment of the catalyst metal in the coating film to make the catalyst metal exhibit autocatalytic properties, and then, performing electroless plating.

A method of forming a patterned metal unit on an article. The method includes the steps of: providing an article that has an insulating surface; transferring a catalyst layer onto the insulating surface of the article, the catalyst layer including a catalytic material; removing a part of the catalyst layer to form a patterned catalyst layer; and forming a patterned metal layer on the patterned catalyst layer by an electroless plating technique to obtain a patterned metal unit that is constituted by the patterned catalyst layer and the patterned metal layer.

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.

The present disclosure provides a metal compound. The metal compound is represented by a formula (I): Cu.sub.2A.sub.?B.sub.2-?O.sub.4-? (I). A contains at least one element selected from the groups 6 and 8 of the periodic table. B contains at least one element selected from the group 13 of the periodic table, 0<?<2, and 0<?<1.5. Polymer article containing the metal compound and method for preparing the polymer article as well as selective metallization of a surface of the polymer article are also provided. In addition, the present disclosure provides an ink composition and the selective metallization for a surface of the insulative substrate using the ink composition.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to a polymer article. The polymer article includes a polymer matrix and a metal compound dispersed in the polymer matrix. The metal compound is a compound represented by formula (I): A.sub.xCu.sub.y(PO.sub.4).sub.2 (I). In formula (I), A represents at least one element selected from Group IIA of the periodic table of elements, x/y=0.1 to 20, x+y=3.

A plasma treatment apparatus and a plasma treatment method are provided. The apparatus includes a chamber, a planar plasma-generating electrode, a sample suspension and holding system, and an optical observation system. The chamber defines a processing inner chamber, and the top portion of the chamber has a window. The planar plasma-generating electrode is located in the processing inner chamber for generating a planar plasma. The sample suspension and holding system is disposed opposite to the planar plasma-generating electrode in the processing inner chamber to suspend and hold a sample. The optical observation system is located in the processing inner chamber adjacent to the sample suspension and holding system to measure the thickness range of a planar plasma effective influence region through the window of the chamber.

A method of forming a patterned metal unit on an article. The method includes the steps of: providing an article that has an insulating surface; transferring a catalyst layer onto the insulating surface of the article, the catalyst layer including a catalytic material; removing a part of the catalyst layer to form a patterned catalyst layer; and forming a patterned metal layer on the patterned catalyst layer by an electroless plating technique to obtain a patterned metal unit that is constituted by the patterned catalyst layer and the patterned metal layer.

A method for producing metal patterns, which includes depositing a temporary protection on a substrate surface corresponding to the negative of the patterns to be produced; depositing at least one metal on the areas corresponding to the patterns to be produced; and eliminating the temporary protection at least partly during and/or after, or at least partly during and/or after the deposition step. The method can produce decorative objects or functional objects such as printed circuits, integrated circuits, RFID chips, and electronic reader-readable encoding pictograms. A set of consumables used to implement the method is also disclosed.