Investigation of dielectric properties of microtextured surfaces with silver PVD and under short circuit conditions

The use of laser microtexturing on plastic surfaces is shown to delay the onset of conductivity when successive coats of silver are applied using PVD. The same microtextured surfaces, especially the hydrophobic ones, are also shown to keep their dielectric strength much better than nontextured surfaces under actual short circuits of complete products. This behavior can be explained by the diffusion and aggregation of particles at the hollows of microtextures and their highly nonuniform distribution at the peaks.