Investigation of process parameters in electroless copper plating on polystyrene

There is a requirement of imparting conductivity to the surface of polystyrene for making various lightweight millimeter wave components. Researchers have worked on the plating of ABS material but there is very less work carried out on Polystyrene. This work has been carried out to make the surface of polystyrene conductive by electroless plating of copper on polystyrene followed by electroplating of copper. The acceleration process was added for increasing the acceptability of copper ions on etched surface. Test samples have successfully qualified rigorous grind saw test for checking adhesiveness of the plating layer. The samples were studied using a scanning electron microscope for the analysis of the morphology of the plated layer. Regression analysis of the different parameters was done for establishing the interrelation between the parameters. The results show that the achieved electroless plating on polystyrene is compact and continuous.