A study of defects in ultra-thin transparent coatings on polymers

Abstract

We describe new techniques, based mainly on reactive ion etching (RIE) in oxygen plasma, to render visible micrometer- or sub-micrometer-sized defects in transparent barrier films on transparent polymers. These techniques can be used to characterize and better understand the origins of defects in these coatings on a microscopic scale, as well as for mapping and counting defect density on a macroscopic scale (tens of cm2 or more). © Springer-Verlag 1999.