Promotion effect of iodization on carbonization for MEMS application

This paper describes the promotion effects of iodine treatment on the carbonization of polymers under low pyrolysis temperature for MEMS and μTAS applications. Higher pyrolysis temperature contributes to further carbonization. There is, however, a restriction of process temperature in applying pyrolyzed polymers to MEMS chips. This work proposes a unique technique to synthesize pyrolyzed polymers to overcome the restriction. Through electrical and structural characterizations, it is confirmed that iodine treatment promotes further carbonization. Parylene C film after 12 hours of iodine treatment followed by pyrolysis at 650 °C was 2.0 Ω·cm, but 3.4 kΩ·cm without iodine treatment. Furthermore, we will present the opportunities of the proposed technique for electrochemical electrode applications.