Selective electroless deposition of copper on polyimide surface by microcontact printing

Polyimide can hardly be patterned by microcontact printing method due to its poor adhesive property. This paper reports the electroless deposition of copper pattern on a siloxane-containing polyimide by microcontact printing. The incorporation of siloxane components into polyimide changes the surface properties of polyimide and enables it to be directly patterned by elastic stamp transferred organic silane. Selectively copper deposition is achieved through the silane patterns, which define the catalysts bound area. The siloxane-containing polyimide is demonstrated to be a suitable substrate for microcontact printing which does not need to be chemically modified prior to stamping. The simplicity of this process for creating selective copper patterns on polyimide material is highlighted.