Development of adhesion promoters to enhance polymer/substrate interface toughness

The adhesion performance of photo-BCB coatings were investigated using a new adhesion promoter, AP-3000, based on vinyltriacetoxysilane (VTAS) chemistry. A modified edge lift-off test (m-ELT) was employed to evaluate adhesion performance of photo-BCB on various surfaces: Si, SiN, Cu, and Al. Use of AP-3000 resulted in a large improvement of adhesion energies for these interfaces. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) of these interfaces showed cohesive interfacial failure into the photo-BCB phase. The interfacial fracture energies approached the fracture toughness of photo-BCB, ca. 45 J/m/sup 2/.