Improving Plating by Use of Intense Acoustic Beams

An improved method of selective plating of metals and possibly other materials involves the use of directed high-intensity acoustic beams. The beams, typically in the ultrasonic frequency range, can be generated by fixed- focus transducers (see figure) or by phased arrays of transducers excited, variously, by continuous waves, tone bursts, or single pulses. The nonlinear effects produced by these beams are used to alter plating processes in ways that are advantageous.