Russian scientists have achieved a breakthrough in replacing imported copper plating solutions for the dielectric layers of circuit boards and multilayer boards. The news came from the press service of the Russian Chemical-Technological University named after D. I. Mendeleev, highlighting a significant shift toward domestic sourcing in electronic manufacturing.
In modern chip and board fabrication, one of the essential steps is to apply copper conductors to the non-conductive base in precisely defined areas. The coating is built up through chemical precipitation from a solution, a process that demands extreme precision. The success of this operation hinges on both the recipe of the plating bath and the exact conditions during deposition. Historically, supplying the necessary chemical solutions and the associated production equipment to Russia faced hurdles due to strained international relations. The outcome was a growing dependence on foreign technologies for copper deposition in electronics.
Today, Venera Aleshina and her colleagues report a decisive advance: a fully domestic copper plating solution that matches, and in some aspects exceeds, foreign benchmarks in stability, deposition rate, and the quality of the copper coatings. The newly developed electrolyte supports uniform, continuous coatings both on surfaces and inside through-holes in multilayer sheets. This equivalence with international analogues extends to the brightness and adhesion of the copper, ensuring reliable electrical performance across various PCB geometries and thicknesses.
The Research team benefited from strengthening the Innovative Materials Department, enabling rapid experimentation to tune an organic additive system. This additive network ensures the electrolyte demonstrates the required scattering properties and promotes uniform copper growth within vias and on surface features. Modern analytical instruments, including inverted metallurgical microscopes, played a key role in characterizing coating uniformity and defect rates. The work drew on established models from international practice: the Swedish electroless copper system PEC 670 served as a reference for chemical deposition, while the German Cupracid TP3 informed electroplating parameters. These references helped anchor the domestic solution’s performance in proven industrial benchmarks.
Current plans include pilot-scale trials to validate performance in real manufacturing environments. These tests are intended to demonstrate process stability, coating continuity in dense via structures, and long-term reliability under typical operating conditions. The shift toward domestically produced chemistry aligns with broader efforts to strengthen supply chain resilience in the electronics sector and to accelerate the localization of critical manufacturing technologies within Russia. By combining rigorous formulation science with practical testing, the researchers aim to provide a robust alternative to imported solutions that meets or exceeds the standards required by modern PCB fabrication lines.
The broader impact of this development extends to materials science and industrial chemistry, illustrating how targeted research and close collaboration between university laboratories and pilot production facilities can generate high-value, domestically sourced technology. The success also underscores the importance of a well-designed electrolyte system, where the interplay between solvent, additives, and metal ions determines coating quality, especially in challenging geometries like dense through-holes. As the project progresses, engineers and researchers will continue refining the formulation, optimizing deposition kinetics, and validating environmental and safety profiles to ensure wide, sustainable deployment across the electronics sector.
In parallel, ongoing studies are exploring how similar approaches to chemical deposition and surface finishing can enhance other critical metals used in electronics, potentially reducing dependence on foreign suppliers for a broader range of materials. Overall, the achievement marks a turning point in Russia’s capability to manufacture essential PCB technologies locally, strengthening national competitiveness while maintaining the high standards demanded by modern device engineering.
there is also a growing recognition that continued investment in materials innovation and process optimization will yield long-term benefits for the electronics ecosystem, from small-scale prototypes to large-volume production. By keeping the focus on quality, reproducibility, and safety, scientists and industry partners alike can build a more resilient supply chain that supports innovation across the domestic technology landscape.