The effect of plasma treatment on the permeability of PET substrates

Author

Sanaee, Z. ; Mohajerzadeh, S. ; Zand, K. ; Gard, F.S. ; Pajouhi, H.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng, Nano-Electron. Center of Excellence Univ. of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

fYear

2009

fDate

9-11 Dec. 2009

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

2

Abstract

Poly ethylene terephthalate (PET) is a favorite polymer for applications in flexible electronics such as flexible displays and solar cells. Also it has extensive applications in food and packaging industries. A considerable decrease in permeability of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) films by means of surface plasma treatment in a reactive ion etching system is reported. The effects of hydrogen, oxygen and SF6 radio frequency plasma on the surface properties of PET polymers are investigated by SEM, AFM and X-ray photon spectroscopy (XPS) and optical spectroscopy. Also the penetration of air through the treated substrates was investigated using a vacuum test. The creation of new C-O bonds and C-F bonds are believed to be improving the physical properties of the substrate without significantly degrading its optical behavior. It is found that hydrogen and oxygen plasmas lead to about two-fold and four-fold reduction in the penetration of air through the PET films, respectively.

Keywords

atomic force microscopy; permeability; polymer films; scanning electron microscopy; sputter etching; AFM; C-F bonds; C-O bonds; SEM; X-ray photon spectroscopy; flexible displays; flexible electronics; optical spectroscopy; permeability; polyethylene terephthalate; reactive ion etching; solar cells; surface plasma treatment; Hydrogen; Optical films; Optical polymers; Permeability; Plasma applications; Plasma displays; Plasma properties; Plasma x-ray sources; Positron emission tomography; Surface treatment;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Semiconductor Device Research Symposium, 2009. ISDRS '09. International

Conference_Location

College Park, MD

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-6030-4

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-6031-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISDRS.2009.5378340

Filename

5378340