A Study on Electroless Copper Deposition for Desktop Stereolithography 3D Printing Materials

Abstract

Electroless deposition is a method of metallizing parts without needing for an electrical source that can be performed on electrically conductive and non-conductive materials. Adhesion quality is an essential aspect of the electroless deposition process that determines the metal deposition conditions. The properties of stereolithography (SLA) 3D printed parts can be improved through the metallization process for various applications. In this study, optimization through the orthogonal design method was used to obtain the optimal processing parameters of electroless copper deposition on desktop SLA material with respect to adhesion quality. Experimental work was carried out according to the L9 (34) orthogonal array, followed by an evaluation of the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Based on the S/N ratio results, the optimal processing parameters for adhesion quality were potassium hydroxide concentration (400 g/L), etching time (30 min), formaldehyde concentration (3.75 mL/L) and deposition time (30 min). The results of the study are useful for industries such as rapid tooling, rapid prototyping, and semiconductors.

Keywords

• stereolithography
• electroless copper deposition
• optimization
• adhesion quality