Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Vol.60, No.4, 543-555, 1996
Effect of Plasma Polymer Deposition Methods on Copper Corrosion Protection
The behavior of plasma polymer coating for Cu corrosion protection was investigated in de cathodic polymerization, with and without anode magnetron enhancement, af magnetron glow discharge polymerization, and rf glow discharge polymerization. The combination of visual and scanning electron microscopy observations established general trends in an accelerated wet/dry cycle corrosion testing environment containing 0.1N chloride ions. Dc anodic magnetron cathodic polymerization of TMS offered the best Cu corrosion protection due to an enhanced deposition uniformity and adhesion of the deposited plasma polymer to the Cu substrate. No corrosion was observed after 25 wet/dry cycle accelerated corrosion tests when uncoated Cu suffered a severely generalized attack in one cycle. Superior corrosion protection was also performed by an af plasma polymerized coating of C4F10 + H-2 (1 : 1) at a low-energy input density and of methane at high-energy input and high deposition thickness carried out in the range of this study. The application of plasma polymers which showed high water vapor permeation resistance and surface dynamic stability greatly reduced the pitting densities.