LASER-ENHANCED PLATING AND ETCHING - MECHANISMS AND APPLICATIONS

A laser beam impinging on an electrode is used to enhance local electroplating or etching rates by several orders of magnitude, and it is possible to produce very highly localized electroless plating at high deposition rates, to greatly enhance and localize the typical metal-exchange (immersion) plating reactions, to obtain thermo-battery-driven reactions with simple single-element aqueous solutions, and to greatly enhance localized chemical etching. The recent experiments and the observed laser plating and etching enhancement phenomena are explored. Some examples of laser-enhanced plating requiring no external power sources are also described. Applications of these new techniques, particularly to maskless microcircuit repair and design changes, are discussed.