A catalyst for a catalytic ink includes a support particle and a metallic material supported on the support particle. The metallic material is diamminesilver hydroxide, a silver salt, a palladium salt, a gold salt, chloroauric acid, or combinations thereof. A catalytic ink obtained from the catalyst and use of the same to fabricate a conductive circuit are also disclosed.

Provided herein is a method to printed electronics, and more particularly related to printed electronics on flexible, porous substrates. The method includes applying a coating compound comprising poly (4-vinylpyridine) (P4VP) and SU-8 dissolved in an organic alcohol solution to one or more surface of a flexible, porous substrate, curing the porous substrate at a temperature of at least 130 C. such that the porous substrate is coated with a layer of said coating compound, printing a jet of a transition metal salt catalyst solution onto one or more printing sides of the flexible, porous substrate to deposit a transition metal salt catalyst onto the one or more printing sides, and submerging the substrate in an electroless metal deposition solution to deposit the metal on the flexible, porous substrate, wherein the deposited metal induces the formation of one or more three-dimensional metal-fiber conductive structures within the flexible, porous substrate.

A coating liquid for forming a conductive layer according to an embodiment of the present invention contains fine metal particles, a dispersion medium, and a dispersant. The coating liquid has a pH of 4 or more and 8 or less, an electrical conductivity of 100 S/cm or more and 800 S/cm or less, and a content of the fine metal particles of 20% by mass or more and 80% by mass or less. A method for manufacturing a conductive layer according to another embodiment of the present invention is a method for manufacturing a conductive layer using a coating liquid for forming a conductive layer, the coating liquid containing fine metal particles, a dispersion medium, and a dispersant. The method includes an application step of applying the coating liquid for forming a conductive layer, and a heating step of heating the coating liquid for forming a conductive layer after application. At the time of the application, the coating liquid for forming a conductive layer has a pH of 4 or more and 8 or less, an electrical conductivity of 100 S/cm or more and 800 S/cm or less, and a content of the fine metal particles of 20% by mass or more and 80% by mass or less.

An electronic device and methods of manufacturing the same are disclosed. One method of manufacturing the electronic device includes forming a first metal layer on a first substrate, forming an electrical device on a second substrate, forming electrical connectors on input and/or output terminals of the electrical device, selectively depositing a second metal on at least part of the first metal layer, and electrically connecting the electrical connectors to the first metal layer by contacting the electrical connectors to the second metal. The second metal is different from the first metal. The second metal improves adhesion and/or electrical connectivity of the first metal layer to the electrical connectors on the electrical device.

A substrate for a printed circuit board includes a base film having an insulating property; a first conductive layer formed on at least one of surfaces of the base film by application of a conductive ink containing metal particles; and a second conductive layer formed, by plating, on a surface of the first conductive layer, the surface being on a side opposite to the base film, wherein a region near an interface between the base film and the first conductive layer contains a metal oxide species based on a metal of the metal particles and a metal hydroxide species based on the metal of the metal particles, the metal oxide species in the region near the interface between the base film and the first conductive layer has a mass per unit area of 0.1 g/cm.sup.2 or more and 10 g/cm.sup.2 or less, and a mass ratio of the metal oxide species to the metal hydroxide species is 0.1 or more.

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.

Methods for producing flexible circuits can include creating treating a surface of the flexible circuit with at least one of an atmospheric plasma and a beam of ions. The atmospheric plasma is formed by directing a flow of gas between an electrode and the surface of the flexible circuit and generating a voltage between the electrode and the flexible circuit to create a plasma from the gas. A mean ion energy of the ions in the ion beam ranges from about 500 electron volts to about 1,500 electron volts.

Depicted embodiments are directed to an Application Specific Electronics Packaging (ASEP) system, which enables the manufacture of additional products using reel to reel (68a, 68b) manufacturing processes as opposed to the batch processes used to currently manufacture electronic products and MIDs. Through certain ASEP embodiments, it is possible to integrate connectors, sensors, LEDs, thermal management, antennas, RFID devices, microprocessors, memory, impedance control, and multi-layer functionality directly into a product.

A method for fabricating a substrate structure is provided, which includes the steps of: disposing at least a strengthening member on a carrier; sequentially forming a first circuit layer and a dielectric layer on the carrier, wherein the strengthening member is embedded in the dielectric layer; forming a second circuit layer on the dielectric layer; removing the carrier; and forming an insulating layer on the first circuit layer and the second circuit layer. The strengthening member facilitates to reduce thermal warping of the substrate structure.

A method for manufacturing an antenna includes the steps of: providing a ferrite sheet; forming a via hole through the ferrite sheet, wherein the via hole is connected between a first surface and a second surface of the ferrite sheet; forming a nonconductive ink layer on the first surface and the second surface and in the via hole of the ferrite sheet; applying a displacement process to the nonconductive ink layer so as to form a first metal layer on the nonconductive ink layer; and applying a thickening process to the first metal layer so as to form a second metal layer on the first metal layer, wherein the first metal layer and the second metal layer both extend from the first surface through the via hole to the second surface of the ferrite sheet.