The morphology and adhesion strength of the autocatalytic electroless nickel phosphorus (Ni-P) film, deposited at 40 ºC on polished alumina (Al2O3 99.6%) substrate, pretreated by sulfur/nitric solution, sensitizing with acid stannous chloride and activated using palladium chloride solutions, was studied using contact angle (CA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), mechanical profilometer (DekTak), and direct laser writer (“maskless lithography”). The results showed that after treatment of the polished Al2O3 substrate, it presented a high performance in the electroless deposition of Ni-P thin-film at low temperature (40 ºC). It was obtained a more compact and continuous film, with small grain size and strong adherence.

In this paper, a pre-treatment process for electroless copper (Cu) deposition on the polished alumina (Al2O3) 99.9% and the behavior of Cu plating by electroless process after Al2O3 surface treatment were explored. Our work was carried out by changing the roughness of Al2O3 through micro-etching (coarsening), nucleation its surface by a two-step method (sensitization and activation) and electroless Cu plating deposited using non-commercial solution having formaldehyde as reducer, alkaline pH and operating temperature of 30 ºC. Contact angle system (CA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), mechanical profilometer (DekTak XT) atomic force microscopy (AFM) and analysis by Gwyddion v2.27 software were used to evaluate the wet treatment and the morphology of the electroless deposition (ED) of Cu on the Al2O3 surface. The results show that the surface treatment of purity polished Al2O3 with 0.1% of vitreous materials present into the substrate surface, presents a high performance in ED film at low temperature (30 ºC), during the Cu deposition, obtaining more compact and uniform film, with small grain size, uniform thickness, and a high purity Cu metallic deposit.