Inorganic ion beam resist for additive plating of metallic interconnects

A new approach to produce metallic conductors on insulating materials is presented. The conductor is made by electroless plating of a catalytic pattern, which is generated by ion beam decompositon of platinum-metal compounds. On polyimide, metallic lines are produced with good adhesion, and it is demonstrated that the lines can be made between two levels. The plating process on polyimide has a surprisingly small inhibition period of 20 s and a plating speed of 30 nm/min which is about twice the normal.