Soft magnetic Fe–Ni thick films plated on a non-conductive substrate using an electroless plating

We prepared Fe–Ni films on non-conductive substrates (Polyimide sheets) using the electroless plating method and investigated the metallization process of the PI sheets and the magnetic properties of the films. To obtain suitable conditions for the metallization of the PI surface, we changed the immersion time in KOH and AgNO3. As a result, the thickness slightly increased with increasing the immersion time in KOH, and the obvious effect of the immersion time in AgNO3 on the film thickness was not observed. The coercivity of the films plated on the PI sheet increased with increasing the thickness due to an increase in the roughness, and the value of coercivity was almost the same as previously reported ones (Hc = 30–96 A/m) using conductive substrates. We, therefore, concluded that the Fe–Ni films with low coercivity could be obtained by the optical metallization of the PI surface.