Ftir Investigations of Plasma Modified Polymer Surfaces and Their Interfaces with Plasma Deposited Tungsten

Abstract

Surface modifications of thin polyimide films (100–2000 A˚) in downstream microwave CF4/NF3/Ar plasmas and radio-frequency (RF) CF4 plasmas have been studied in situ by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) reflection-absorption spectroscopy. The downstream microwave plasma treatment produced significant surface fluorination in terms of polyfluorinated alkyl and aryl compounds as well as acyl and benzoyl fluorides. The depth of fluorination was approximately 500 Å. Similar changes in polymer surface functionalities were observed for RF plasma surface modifications, but the depth of fluorination was reduced to 30Å because of ion-bombardment. The interface between the tungsten film and polyimide surfaces has been characterized by ex situ FTIR reflection-absorption technique through the silicon side of Si/polymer/W structures. The observed spectral changes relative to polyimide-gold interfaces were interpreted in terms of interactions of tungsten with functionalities of the polyimde backbone. Tungsten deposited by both sputtering and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) showed significant chemical interactions, strongest for PECVD tungsten.