In this work, the effects of fluorination of polyimide thin films on surface and dielectric characteristics were studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and dielectric spectrometry, respectively. The thermal and mechanical properties of the film were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and tensile strengths, respectively. The fluorine content of the polyimide thin film was increased with increasing treatment concentration, resulting in decreasing dielectric constant of the film. It was found that the replacement of fluorine led to the decrease of the local electronic polarizability of polyimide, or to the increase of the free volume, which can be attributed to the relatively large size of fluorine. Nevertheless, the fluorination did not significantly affect thermal or mechanical properties of the polyimide film under mild conditions in this system. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Inc.