Electroless process for the preparation of particle enhanced electric contact surfaces

The present invention provides a unique method for the electroless co-deposition of metal and hard particles on an electrical contact surface to provide electrical, thermal, and mechanical connections between the particle enhanced contact surface and an opposing contact surface, and to enhance the thermal and electrical conductivity between the contact surfaces and their corresponding substrates. The innovative method is able to uniformly deposit metal and particles of any shape, and with a wide range of density and sizes, on contact surfaces, and can be adjusted to provide any desired surface area coverage in desirable deposition patterns. The co-deposited contact surface can, for example, be easily joined to another surface of any type by nonconductive adhesive, resulting in a connection that is mechanically robust, chemically inert, and inherently electrically conductive.