Laser-induced surface modification and metallization of polymers

Laser-induced surface modification of different polymers is presented as a suitable pretreatment of surfaces in a two-step metallization process. Materials such as polyamide (PA), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polycarbonate (PC), acrylbutadienestyrene (ABS), styreneacrylnitrile (SAN), polybutadieneterephthalate (PBT), and polyoxymethylene (POM) were treated by excimer-laser radiation at 248 nm in air. The aim of this study is to investigate different processing regimes of surface modification and ablation to increase surface roughness. Therefore, the laser-processing variables fluence F, repetition rate v and pulse number N are varied and the ablation depth, optical penetration depth, absorption coefficient and ablation threshold are determined. The metallization of pretreated (laser, wet chemical and plasma etching) polymers is investigated for different surface morphologies. The used metallization processes were electroplating and physical vapour deposition (PVD). The adhesion of the deposited films is measured with scratch and tape test methods in order to determine the regimes of suitable surface modification for metallization.