Abstract:The subtraction process is prevailing in manufacturing printed circuit board although it causes problems such as high cost, serious environment pollution and long production cycle etc. These problems could be solved through the usage of the addition process which represents the trends of future development. Through screen printing or inkjet printing, the prevalent addition process prints the conductive paste or ink directly on the insulating media to form the circuit. However, this process is limited by the shortage of the conductivity of the circuit. This could be improved significantly by applying electroless plating on the printed circuit. Unfortunately, it is impossible to apply electorless plate on the circuit pattern using current conductive paste or ink. This paper focused on a new addition process for manufacturing printed circuits. A novel ink was prepared by dispersing silver powders into the solution of acrylic resin with epoxy resin in ethanol, and then coated on the PET substrate to form an activating layer after thermal curing. This paper investigated the electroless copper plating on the activating layer and its binding force with substrate, the ratio of two kinds of resins and its effect on the crosslinking degree, bond strength and plating ability of the activating coating, relationship between the permeability and the plating ability of the coating in plating baths. And how the properties of the coating are affected by the amount, dispersion and dispersion stability of the silver powder during drying and curing. The results show that the plating ability (on PET substrate) and the peeling strength of the activating adhesive increase through the adjustment of the curing crosslinking degree and the amount of the silver powder in the coating layer，respectively. When the crosslinking degree of the coating is 59.8% and the ratio of silver powder to resin is 2: 1, a uniform and continuous plating layer can be obtained. The peeling strength of the layer reached 16 N/cm, a value exceeded the current industrial level. It has been found that the plating ability is determined by the plating bath permeability. Furthermore, the dispersion and stability of silver powder determine the stacking structure of silver particles on the substrate, thus affecting the plating ability and peeling strength of the coating.