Insulating film, sheet, or plate material with metallic coating and method for manufacturing same

Abstract

This invention provides a method for forming a dense, electrically conductive, metallic coating having a sufficient adherence without use of an adhesive on an insulating film, sheet, or plate such as plastic film, plastic rigid sheet, or ceramics by the cluster ion plating procedure which comprises heating a crucible containing a vapor deposition metal at a temperature of 200.degree. to 2,500.degree. C in a vacuum of 1 .times. 10.sup.-4 Torr. to 1 .times. 10.sup.-7 Torr. to generate a metal cluster through a small hole of the crucible, ionizing the metal cluster by the impact of electrons, and electrostatically accelerating the resulting cluster ion and depositing the same on a base material; a method for directly forming an electric circuit on the base material without use of adhesive according to the above-said method, wherein the base material is covered with a mask in the sheet form; and a method for efficiently increasing the thickness of the metallic coatings formed by the above methods, by further deposition of a metal by a vacuum deposition procedure or by an ion plating procedure similar to the said cluster ion plating, except that the crucible has an ejecting hole of a larger diameter so that practically the cluster is no more formed. The invention also provides the products manufactured by the above methods.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.