Manufacturing a package using plateable encapsulant

A method of manufacturing a package, the method comprising:

• configuring a first encapsulant so that electrically conductive material is plateable thereon;
• configuring a second encapsulant so that electrically conductive material is not plateable thereon;
• plating, in particular electroless plating, electrically conductive material selectively on a surface of the first encapsulant without plating electrically conductive material on a surface of the second encapsulant.

A method of manufacturing a plateable encapsulant, the method comprising:

• providing a transition metal-polymer compound comprising a transition metal and a polymer cluster;
• removing a surface portion of the polymer cluster, in particular a surface portion of the polymeric structure and of a complexing agent, to thereby expose the transition metal;
• activating the exposed transition metal.

An encapsulant for encapsulating a semiconductor chip, wherein the encapsulant comprises:

• an electrically insulating encapsulant base material;
• an activatable plating catalyst being convertible from a deactivated state, in which the encapsulant is non-plateable with electrically conductive material, into an activated state, in which the encapsulant is plateable with electrically conductive material.

A method of manufacturing an encapsulant, wherein the method comprises:

• providing a compound comprising an electrically insulating encapsulant base material and an activatable plating catalyst in a deactivated state, in which the compound is non-plateable with electrically conductive material;
• converting at least part of the plating catalyst from the deactivated state into an activated state, in which the compound is plateable with electrically conductive material.