This volume introduces a new plating technology that used to be considered impossible.

Plating on functional glass

Electroless plating can be applied directly on silica glass and borosilicate glass (PYREX), in order to bond them with other metal and ceramic materials and to form an electric circuit or electrodes on the surface, while taking advantage of the characteristics of functional glass. Plating on the glass surfaces used to be done by dry plating, such as vacuum deposition and sputtering. However, its high cost and poor adhesion performance were the problem.
In this new plating technology, the glass surface and the plating film are chemically bonded, instead of going through the etching process where the adhesion between the glass surface and the plating film is enhanced by the anchor effect.
After rinsing and moisturizing the glass surface, the surface is treated with processes to enhance the chemical bonding. After the catalytic activation, electroless nickel plating is applied.
Then, various types of electroplating or electroless plating are applied depending on the usages.
The application examples include a pressure sensor using the PYREX glass tubes coated with nickel-gold plating inside and out, and the outer surface of a communication quartz optical fiber coated with electroless nickel plating in order to prevent light diffusion and noise generation.