Deposition of Gallium based liquid metal alloy on plasma treated PDMS substrate for Biomedical and RF applications.
Ahmed, Tanvir (2017)
Ahmed, Tanvir
2017
Master's Degree Programme in Electrical Engineering
Tieto- ja sähkötekniikan tiedekunta - Faculty of Computing and Electrical Engineering
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2017-03-08
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201702101111
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201702101111
Tiivistelmä
Printed stretchable Electronics has appeared into the Electronics manufacturing industry only within last few decades. It has provided a new era in electronics especially; medical technology has been enriched with various electronic circuits consisting of conductors with other active and passive components such as transistors, resistors, capacitors etc. printed on top of flexible substrate. This new technique has replaced the traditional manufacturing process through introduction of more efficient and simpler methods. Microfluidic approach is the process, where very highly conductive liquid alloy based electronic components are placed inside flexible encapsulated platforms. In this method low impedance in large areal electronics can be achieved through combining rigid active components into the same area.
This research focuses mainly on the introduction of a new approach using Gallium (Ga) – Indium (In) – based liquid metal alloy. There are a few similar types of previous research works were studied and a less complicated method with fewer processing steps was investigated during this work. Galinstan was used here as the liquid metal alloy, it has very high conductivity and the ability to maintain its performance in mechanical stretch. The characteristics of Galinstan were analyzed by depositing it on top of PDMS substrate. Plasma treatment process is one of the main features of this research. It was used to complete the fabrication method with fewer steps. Different image patterns were mounted on the PDMS surface through the plasma activation. Effect of air plasma and nitrogen plasma on PDMS was analyzed for different patterns. Rapid oxidation of the Galinstan was observed and upon observation it was proved to limit the applicability of the proposed approach unless oxygen can be excluded from the process. Different HCl treatment seemed to be the most effective ways to solve this problem. Other Possible solutions with proper encapsulation processes to remove the oxidized layer were also introduced in this work.
This research focuses mainly on the introduction of a new approach using Gallium (Ga) – Indium (In) – based liquid metal alloy. There are a few similar types of previous research works were studied and a less complicated method with fewer processing steps was investigated during this work. Galinstan was used here as the liquid metal alloy, it has very high conductivity and the ability to maintain its performance in mechanical stretch. The characteristics of Galinstan were analyzed by depositing it on top of PDMS substrate. Plasma treatment process is one of the main features of this research. It was used to complete the fabrication method with fewer steps. Different image patterns were mounted on the PDMS surface through the plasma activation. Effect of air plasma and nitrogen plasma on PDMS was analyzed for different patterns. Rapid oxidation of the Galinstan was observed and upon observation it was proved to limit the applicability of the proposed approach unless oxygen can be excluded from the process. Different HCl treatment seemed to be the most effective ways to solve this problem. Other Possible solutions with proper encapsulation processes to remove the oxidized layer were also introduced in this work.