The stable e-beam deposition of metal layer and patterning on the PDMS substrate

In this paper, we proposed the fabrication process of the stable e-beam evaporation and the patterning of metals layer on the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate. The metal layer was deposited under the various deposition rate, and its effect to the electrical and mechanical properties (e.g.: adhesion-strength of metal layer) was investigated. The influence of surface roughness to the adhesion-strength was also examined via the tape test. Here, we varied the roughness by changing the reactive ion etching (RIE) duration. The electrode patterning was performed through the conventional photolithography and chemical etching process after e-beam deposition of $200{\AA}$ Ti and $1000{\AA}$ Au. As a result, the adhesion strength of metal layer on the PDMS surface was greatly improved by the oxygen plasma treatment. The e-beam evaporation on the PDMS surface is known to create the wavy topography. Here, we found that such wavy patterns do not effect to the electrical and mechanical properties. In conclusion, the metal patterns with minimum $20{\mu}m$ line width was produced well via the our fabrication process, and its electrical conductance was almost similar to the that of metal patterns on the silicon or glass substrates.

PDMS 기판상에 금속층의 안정적 증착 및 패터닝