Patent ID: 8628831

Claim:
A method for preparing a polymer article with an original surface for subsequent selective metallization, comprising: submerging the article in a first liquid; in the liquid, irradiate the submerged article by electromagnetic radiation by irradiating the area of the article on which the metal is to be deposited, thereby forming a selected area, wherein the source of the radiation is a laser source, and an activation step, prior to the selective metallization, the activation step comprises submerging the article in an activation liquid for depositing seed particles in the selected area, wherein the irradiation of the selected area is selected and controlled so as to cause a temporary melting of the polymer in the surface of the selected area of the polymer article, resulting in an increase in porosity of the selected area as measured by the ratio (fpor) between void volume to total volume; wherein the temporary melting forms a temporarily melted region; and wherein the temporarily melted region has a height extending above the original surface.