durusmail: mems-talk: Hydrophobic surfaces
Hydrophobic surfaces
2002-02-19
Hydrophobic surfaces
Helen Berney
2002-02-20
Dear Satej,

we've used a number of different silanes to make silicon dioxide surfaces
hydrophobic.  I would expect similar protocols to work for glass.  Using
the Yield Engineering Systems vacuum bake vapour prime oven, which in
silicon processing this is used to deposit thin uniform layer of hmds to
improve resist adhesion, we managed to get hydrophobic layers (as monitored
by contact angle measurements).  The silanes that we were using
aminoproplytriethoxy silane and 4-aminobutyldimethylmethoxy silane (chosen
as linker molecules to attach biological molecules), but there is no reason
why you couldn't use different chemistries.  The only aspect I cannot
advise you on, is how long the chemically modified layer confers
hydrophobicity.

Hope this helps,

Helen.

Dr Helen Berney
National Microelectronics Research Centre, Prospect Row, Cork, Ireland
Tel +353-21-4904010   Fax 353-21-4270271   Email hberney@nmrc.ie
Webpage  http://www.nmrc.ie/research/transducers-group/index.html

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