Maskless atmospheric pressure PECVD of SiOx films on both planar and nonplanar surfaces using a flexible atmospheric microplasma generation device

This paper presents the use of a simple-arranged, low-cost, and flexible atmospheric pressure microplasma generation device (mu PGD) with controlled gas discharge to achieve maskless atmospheric plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of SiOx films on both planar and nonplanar surfaces. The mu PGD is mainly composed of a copper-polyimide-copper sandwich structure with predefined microfluidic channels. Uniform microplasmas of different shapes and dimensions were generated in the open air. SiOx films were masklessly deposited with well-defined edges and good feature transfer fidelity. The SEM, EDS, XPS, and FTIR spectra of the deposited film confirm the SiOx structure. These results indicate that mu PGD is able to achieve maskless PECVD of SiOx films in the open air, especially micropatterning on nonplanar surfaces.