Patent ID: 6875691

Claim:
An electroless plating method comprising: providing an electroless plating bath solution in a holding tank; removing at least a portion of said electroless plating bath solution from said holding tank; providing a plating chamber; locating a substrate within the plating chamber; filling the plating chamber with the electroless plating bath solution that has been removed from the holding tank, said bath solution contacting at least a portion of a the substrate upon filling said plating chamber, wherein said bath solution filling said plating chamber is at a first temperature which is less than the minimum deposition temperature of said bath solution; holding the bath solution which has filled the plating chamber in the plating chamber; heating said bath solution held in said plating chamber to a deposition temperature which is at least equal to the minimum deposition temperature of said bath solution; forming a deposit on at least a portion of said substrate by electroless deposition in the plating chamber while the bath solution which has been removed from the holding tank is held in the plating chamber; and removing the bath solution which has filled the plating chamber from the plating chamber following the formation of a deposit on at least a portion of the substrate.