• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.1425_1426
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• 2009

In this study, commercially available polyethylene terephthalate(PET), which is widely used as a substrate of flexible electronic devices, was modified by dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) method in an air condition at atmospheric pressure, and aluminium - doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) transparent conducting film was deposited on PET substrate by r. f. magnetron sputtering method. Surface analysis and characterization of the plasma-treated PET substrate was carried out using contact angle measurements, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy(XPS) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Especially the effect of surface state of PET substrate on some important properties of ZnO:Al transparent conducting film such as electrical and morphological properties and deposition rate of the film, was studied experimentally. The results showed that the contact angle of water on PET film was reduced significantly from $62^{\circ}$ to $43^{\circ}$ by DBD surface treatment at 20 min. of treatment time. The plasma treatment also improved the deposition rate and electrical properties. The deposition rate was increased almost linearly with surface treatment time. The lowest electrical resistivity as low as $4.97{\times}10^{-3}[\Omega-cm]$ and the highest deposition rate of 234[${\AA}m$/min] were obtained in ZnO:Al film with surface treatment time of 5min. and 20min., respectively.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.15-27
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• 2007

Polyimide (PI) surface modification was carried out by ion-beam treatment and silane-imidazole coupling agent to improve the adhesion between polyimide film and copper. Silane-imidazole coupling agent contains imidazole functional groups for the formation of a complex with copper metal through a coordination bonding and methoxy silane groups for the formation of siloxane polymers. The PI film surface was first treated by argon (Ar)/oxygen ($O_2$) ion-beam, followed by dipping it into a modified silane-imidazole coupling agent solution. The results of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra revealed that the $Ar/O_2$ plasma treatment formed oxygen functional groups such as hydroxyl and carbonyl groups on the polyimide film surface and confirmed that the PI surface was modified by a coupling reaction with imidazole-silane coupling agent. Adhesion between copper and the treated PI film by ion-beam and coupling agent was superior to that with untreated PI film. In addition, adhesion of PI film treated by an $Ar/O_2$ plasma to copper was better than that of PI film treated by a coupling agent. The peeled-off layers from the copper-PI film joint were completely different in chemical composition each other. The layer of PI film side showed similar C1s, N1s, O1s spectra to the original Upilex-S and no Si and Cu atoms appeared. On the other hand the layer of copper side showed different C1s and N1s spectra from the original PI film and many Si and Cu atoms appeared. This indicates that the failure occurs at an interface between the imidazole-silane and PI film layers rather than within the PI layers.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.12-16
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• 2012

Although silver is used for T-OLED (Top emitting organic Light-Emitting Diode) as reflective anode, it is not an ideal material due to its low work function. Thus, we study the effect of annealing and atmospheric pressure plasma treatment on Ag film that increases its work function by forming the thin silver oxide layer on its surface. In this study, we deposited silver on glass substrate using RF sputtering. Then we treated the Ag samples annealing at $300^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes in atmosphere or treating the atmospheric plasma treatment for 30, 60, 90, 120s, respectively. We measured the change of the mechanical properties and the potential value of surface with each one at a different treatment type and time. We used nano-indenter system and KPFM (Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy). KPFM method can be measured the change of surface potential. The nanoindenter results showed that the plasma treatment samples for 30s, 120s had very low elastic modulus, hardness and Weibull modulus. However, annealed sample and plasma treated samples for 60s and 90s had better mechanical properties. Therefore, plasma treatment increases the uniformity thin film and the surface potential that is very effective for the performace of T-OLED.