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Improved Adhesion of Gold Thin Films Evaporated on Polymer Resin: Applications for Sensing Surfaces and MEMS

We present and analyze a method to improve the morphology and mechanical properties of gold thin films for use in optical sensors or other settings where good adhesion of gold to a substrate is of importance and where controlled topography/roughness is key. To improve the adhesion of thermally evapo...

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Autores principales: Moazzez, Behrang, O'Brien, Stacey M., Merschrod S., Erika F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3715244/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23760086
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s130607021
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author Moazzez, Behrang
O'Brien, Stacey M.
Merschrod S., Erika F.
author_facet Moazzez, Behrang
O'Brien, Stacey M.
Merschrod S., Erika F.
author_sort Moazzez, Behrang
collection PubMed
description We present and analyze a method to improve the morphology and mechanical properties of gold thin films for use in optical sensors or other settings where good adhesion of gold to a substrate is of importance and where controlled topography/roughness is key. To improve the adhesion of thermally evaporated gold thin films, we introduce a gold deposition step on SU-8 photoresist prior to UV exposure but after the pre-bake step of SU-8 processing. Shrinkage and distribution of residual stresses, which occur during cross-linking of the SU-8 polymer layer in the post-exposure baking step, are responsible for the higher adhesion of the top gold film to the post-deposition cured SU-8 sublayer. The SU-8 underlayer can also be used to tune the resulting gold film morphology. Our promoter-free protocol is easily integrated with existing sensor microfabrication processes.
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spelling pubmed-37152442013-07-24 Improved Adhesion of Gold Thin Films Evaporated on Polymer Resin: Applications for Sensing Surfaces and MEMS Moazzez, Behrang O'Brien, Stacey M. Merschrod S., Erika F. Sensors (Basel) Article We present and analyze a method to improve the morphology and mechanical properties of gold thin films for use in optical sensors or other settings where good adhesion of gold to a substrate is of importance and where controlled topography/roughness is key. To improve the adhesion of thermally evaporated gold thin films, we introduce a gold deposition step on SU-8 photoresist prior to UV exposure but after the pre-bake step of SU-8 processing. Shrinkage and distribution of residual stresses, which occur during cross-linking of the SU-8 polymer layer in the post-exposure baking step, are responsible for the higher adhesion of the top gold film to the post-deposition cured SU-8 sublayer. The SU-8 underlayer can also be used to tune the resulting gold film morphology. Our promoter-free protocol is easily integrated with existing sensor microfabrication processes. MDPI 2013-05-28 /pmc/articles/PMC3715244/ /pubmed/23760086 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s130607021 Text en © 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Moazzez, Behrang
O'Brien, Stacey M.
Merschrod S., Erika F.
Improved Adhesion of Gold Thin Films Evaporated on Polymer Resin: Applications for Sensing Surfaces and MEMS
title Improved Adhesion of Gold Thin Films Evaporated on Polymer Resin: Applications for Sensing Surfaces and MEMS
title_full Improved Adhesion of Gold Thin Films Evaporated on Polymer Resin: Applications for Sensing Surfaces and MEMS
title_fullStr Improved Adhesion of Gold Thin Films Evaporated on Polymer Resin: Applications for Sensing Surfaces and MEMS
title_full_unstemmed Improved Adhesion of Gold Thin Films Evaporated on Polymer Resin: Applications for Sensing Surfaces and MEMS
title_short Improved Adhesion of Gold Thin Films Evaporated on Polymer Resin: Applications for Sensing Surfaces and MEMS
title_sort improved adhesion of gold thin films evaporated on polymer resin: applications for sensing surfaces and mems
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3715244/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23760086
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s130607021
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