Liquid Phase Deposition of Poly(ethylene terephthalate) Films
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O6.6.1
Liquid Phase Deposition of Poly(ethylene terephthalate) Films Robert M. Bryce1, Hue T. Nguyen2, Rik R. Tykwinski3, Ray G. DeCorby2, 4, Mark R. Freeman1, and Ying Y. Tsui4 1
Centre for Nanoscale Physics, 412 Avadh Bhatia Physics Laboratory, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2J1 2 TRLabs, 7th Floor, 9107 - 116 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2V4 3 Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2G2 4 Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2V4 ABSTRACT Poly(ethylene terephthalate), or PET, has been widely used in experiments due to its excellent properties and availability in sheets as thin as 1.5 µm. Its resistance to chemical attack makes PET a good choice as an inert substrate, but makes liquid phase deposition of thin films from solution challenging. Further, attempts to deposit films from the vapor phase have shown limited success. High quality PET films are desirable, as PET is transparent, hydrophobic, amenable to micropatterning, and is well characterized. As such, PET films are suited for use in microdevices. We report on liquid phase deposition of PET films, and on characterization of the films using optical methods. INTRODUCTION PET polymer is flexible, optically transparent, hydrophobic, resistant to chemical attack, and has a low dielectric constant (kPET< kSiO2) [1]. In addition to these desirable attributes, PET has a low UV laser ablation threshold [2] and displays anisotropic UV-assisted chemical [3] and plasma etch characteristics [4], allowing micro-machining of high aspect ratio structures. Thin sheets (as thin as 1.5 µm) of PET are available, facilitating use of PET as a substrate for a variety of experiments and devices. For example, microfluidic pumps have been realized in PET sheets using laser ablation [5], nanopores have been formed [6], sheets have acted as flexible substrates for micropatterned structures [7] and surface modification has lead to the formation of super hydrophobic surfaces [8]. Due to the properties exhibited by PET there is interest in forming thin films on substrates, allowing wider range of experimental options and device possibilities. Deposition has been achieved by thermal evaporation [9]. In addition, thick drop cast [10] and ultrathin spin cast films [11] have been formed from solution. Thermal deposition of polymers often results in damage or modification of the molecular structure, especially for higher molecular weight polymers such as PET, and reported Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) on evaporated samples indicate such modification [9]. This makes liquid phase deposition desirable, but due to the resistance of PET to solvation it is difficult to spin cast device quality (planar, defect-free) films.
O6.6.2
We report a simple method allowing liquid phase deposition of optical quality PET films, and characterize the films using FTIR and ellipsometry. EXPERIMENT AND DISCUSSION Sheets of commercial poly(ethylene terephthalate) (Mylar D, DuPont) were add
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