Copper plated ceramic is a technique pioneered by Advanced Interconnection Technology who have been in continuous production with this technology longer than anybody else. 

AIT's technology is based on the selective plating of copper onto ceramic.  Whilst the different processes result in circuit boards with radically different properties, the fundamental  steps are remarkably similar and are based on the concept pictured below.  The different manifestations are described in the various sections of this site.

The substrate is initially coated with an electrically conductive seed layer which is used as the conducting path  for the electroplated copper deposition.  The plating is guided by the openings in a photosensitve resist.  The pattern of openings is defined by a photographic process.  After the copper has been plated to the required thickness, the photoresist is removed and the seed layer that is not underneath copper is etched away by chemical dissolution.

AIT uses two different seed layers to give two distinct technologies with radically different properties and four different photoresists for optimal use in different types of application.  This breadth of processing options provides AIT with the most complete technology family available anywhere.