High-purity Ni electroless plating on screen-printed anodized Al substrates

By using an electroless plating process with a Ni source solution including dimethylamine borane (DMAB) at pH 6.5 and 65 ◦ C, we obtained a higher purity Ni film (< 1 at.% boron) without damage to the anodized Al substrate. With increasing plating time, the thickness of the film increased gradually, although the average deposition rate of the Ni films decreased steadily. We can infer that the abrupt decrease in sheet resistance (Rs) at the interface region is due to the change in the boron concentration caused by surface reactions, and the gradual decrease in Rs in the bulk region is due mainly to the effect of the saturation of boron’s concentration on the thickness. From a boron-distribution viewpoint, this result indicates that the B concentration in the Ni film increases gradually with increasing plating time for plating times ≤ 60 s as a kind of initial stage (that is, interface region), and then saturates uniformly for plating times ≥ 300 s as a kind of bulk region. On the other hand, from an electronic structure viewpoint, this result implies that Ni gains 3d electrons with respect to elemental Ni. The increase in the number of electrons gained by the Ni 3d states may result in an enhancement of the electrical conductivity.