Influence of plasma surface treatment on the adhesion of thin films on metals

Thin quartz-like polymer films are prepared in a low pressure electron cyclotron resonance plasma operated at 2.45 GHz. Hexamethyldisiloxane is used as monomer in a mixture with oxygen or hydrogen. The adhesion of the polymer films on metal surfaces is studied by measuring the adhesion power with an adhesion test instrument. It is shown that a plasma surface pre-treatment is necessary to obtain good film adhesion. The deposited films are characterized by their IR spectrum measured by the Fourier transform IR technique. The adhesion power depends on the chemical nature of the film; in some cases the surface energy determined by the test ink method correlates with the adhesion power.