EN
Thick aluminum oxide films are prepared on Al plates by anodizing. On the ceramic surface thus obtained a very thin Ag film is deposited via vacuum thermal evaporation. The Ag/Al2O3/Al samples prepared are irradiated by Nd:YAG laser through a suitable metal mask in order to remove the top metal film in the exposed areas. Thus, a negative silver image of the copied mask is obtained. Further, the samples are processed in Ni electroless chemical bath activated by the rest of silver. All processing steps are studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). EDS X-ray mapping is applied to study the final distribution of Al and Ni in the processed areas. In addition, the DC conductivity of the fabricated Ni wires obtained is measured. The proposed new method for selective chemical deposition of electroconductive Ni onto laser microstructured Ag/Al2O3/Al samples is simple, versatile and not restricted to the metal/ceramic system studied as well as to the electroless deposited metal.