Abstract
We experimentally demonstrated the differences of surface modification effects on silicon-based polymer of soft-type silicone-rubber and hard-type silicone-resin in contact angle and bonding strength by exposure of oxygen plasma, atmospheric pressure plasma, and vacuum-ultraviolet light, in order to investigate the availability of non-vacuum process of atmospheric plasma and vacuum-ultraviolet light for high-throughput surface modifications and bonding. We also propose the use of a hard silicone-resin for Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and Micro-Total Analysis Systems (μ-TAS) material to overcome drawbacks of silicone-rubber, such as easy deformation and destruction of micro / nano structures caused by its softness. As a result, any modification method successfully modified the surface of both silicone-rubber and silicone-resin up to about 10° in contact angle, and bonded to glass. However, the bonding strength between silicone-resin and glass by vacuum ultraviolet light was one order of magnitude smaller than that by oxygen plasma and atmospheric plasma bonding. The results suggest that atmospheric plasma satisfies both high-speed non-vacuum process and high-efficient way for surface modification and the following bonding.
