Adhesion Strength of Electroless Copper Plated Layer on Fluoropolymer Surface Modified by Medium Pressure Plasma

We demonstrated high adhesive fluoropolymer/copper interface through combination of atmospheric pressure plasma with liquid phase self-assembly. However, there are some disadvantages in atmospheric pressure plasma technique, such as small processing area due to the localized plasma and high gas temperature. Medium pressure plasma process has some advantages over atmospheric pressure plasma systems. A large plasma volume and low gas temperature, available for surface treatment of polymer material, can be easier obtained at medium pressure than at atmospheric pressure, which can result in a higher overall productivity. In this paper, we investigated the adhesion strength of electroless copper plated layer formed on poly(tetrafluoroethylene-co-perfluoropropyl vinyl ether) (PFA) surface modified by combination of medium pressure helium plasma irradiation and aminated acrylic polymer grafting. The 90° peel test result for copper plating film formed on the treated PFA films showed the adhesion strength of 0.44 N/mm without increasing the surface roughness.