Plating pre-processing is carried out before carrying out a plating process on the surface of a conducting section provided on a semiconductor wafer. A first metal film is formed on the surface of the conducting section by NiP alloy plating process. A second metal film is formed on the surface of the first metal film by immersion Ag plating process. The semiconductor wafer is diced and cut into semiconductor chips. A conductive composition containing Ag particles is applied to the surface of the second metal film which is on the front surface of the semiconductor chip. A bonding layer containing Ag particles is formed by sintering the conductive composition through heating. A metal plate is then bonded to the surface of the second metal film via the bonding layer containing Ag particles. The electronic component has high bonding strength, excellent thermal resistance and heat radiation properties.