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Published on: July 18, 2015
Formation of submicron-sized silica patterns on flexible polymer substrates based on vacuum ultraviolet
Cheng-Tse Wu1, Ahmed I A Soliman1,2, Toru Utsunomiya1
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University Kyoto 606-8501 Japan sugimura.hiroyuki.7m@kyoto-u.ac.jp +81-75-753-9131.
Abstract:
Formation of precise and high-resolution silica micropatterns on polymer substrates is of importance in surface structuring for flexible device fabrication of optics, microelectronic, and biotechnology. To achieve that, substrates modified with affinity-patterns serve as a strategy for site-selective deposition. In the present paper, vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) treatment is utilized to achieve spatially-controlled surface functionalization on a cyclo-olefin polymer (COP) substrate. An organosilane, 2,4,6,8-tetramethylcyclotetrasiloxane (TMCTS), preferentially deposits on the functionalized regions. Well-defined patterns of TMCTS are formed with a minimum feature of ∼500 nm. The secondary VUV/(O)-treatment converts TMCTS into SiO , meanwhile etches the bare COP surface, forming patterned SiO /COP microstructures with an average height of ∼150 nm. The resulting SiO patterns retain a good copy of TMCTS patterns, which are also consistent with the patterns of photomask used in polymer affinity-patterning. The high quality SiO patterns are of interests in microdevice fabrication, and the hydrophilicity contrast and adjustable heights reveal their potential application as a "stamp" for microcontact printing (μCP) techniques.
