Continuous coatings of copper, tin, gold, silver and nickel may be deposited at or slightly above room temperature after appropriate activation of the substrate. The paints may be applied as are other thick film pastes by painting, dipping, spinning, spraying or tape casting. They may also be patterned onto substrates using screen printing, applying ink jet or by lithographic patterning. The process is not limited to the dimensions of a bath as in electroplating or electroless plating.
Capital investment is low as compared to vacuum evaporation or sputtering.
The method is also adaptable to depositing composites of a secondary phase in the matrix metal layer. Those pastes that contain nanosize metal powder as a secondary phase would form nanostructured coatings. Potential electronic applications include copper and gold conductor traces on MEMS and MCM s, flexcircuits, RFI resistant coatings and thin film capacitors. Metallurgical applications include producing corrosion and wear resistant coatings, hard facing and field refacing of tools, priming layers for brazing and joining metal to metal and ceramic to metal, and copper stop-off for carbonitrization of steel. Brush plating and electrolytic metallization become simplified since electrical connection is not required.