Cr. Davis et Ja. Zimmerman, THERMAL-STABILITY STUDIES OF A POLYIMIDE POLYTETRAFLUOROETHYLENE BLEND AND ITS COMPONENTS, Journal of applied polymer science, 54(2), 1994, pp. 153-162
Low-dielectric constant (epsilon(r)) polymers, such as polytetrafluoro
ethylene (PTFE), are an important component of advanced electronic pro
ducts that transmit data, since it is this physical property that larg
ely determines a device's performance. For instance, the dielectric co
nstant determines overall signal speed and proximity in that one circu
it line can be placed to another, i.e., wiring density, while maintain
ing desired electrical characteristics. However, due to PTFE's inertne
ss and intractability, significant challenges exist in the successful
application of the polymer as an insulation material. One specific exa
mple is the lack of available methods to uniformly and controllably ge
nerate fine, high-density features in the neat fluoropolymer. Recently
, it was reported that excellent structuring characteristics of PTFE c
an be achieved by sensitizing the fluoropolymer to excimer laser radia
tion using small quantities of an aromatic polyimide. An important phy
sical property of the sensitization agent, in addition to interacting
strongly with the laser's emitted energy, is suitable thermal stabilit
y due to PTFE's high-temperature processing requirements. Using multip
le analysis techniques, the thermal decomposition behavior of PTFE, po
lyimide sensitizer, and resulting polymer blend have been evaluated. I
t was determined that the onset of decomposition for all systems is ne
ar or greater than 500-degrees-C. (C) 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.