Metal-vapor integration/transportation based on metal-atom desorption from polymer surfaces with a low glass-transition temperature

Abstract

Vacuum evaporation, which is widely used to obtain a metal-film coating on substrates and/or targets, results in a large loss of evaporation materials. The authors discovered a selective metal-vapor deposition phenomenon in which metal-vapor atoms can be deposited selectively without a shadow mask. The core phenomenon of selective deposition is the desorption of metal-vapor atoms from organic surfaces with a low-glass transition temperature (low-Tg). The authors investigated metal-atom desorption from low-Tg polymer [polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)] surfaces during vacuum deposition and found that greater than 2-μm-thick PDMS film enables high desorption efficiency. The authors proposed two vacuum deposition methods: metal-vapor transportation and metal-vapor integration. The former method attained reduced substrate surface temperatures during vacuum evaporation and the latter enabled extremely high deposition efficiency and three-dimensional deposition in a one-batch process. These new methods can greatly widen applications of vacuum deposition.