Adhesion Characteristics of Sputtered Cu Seed Layer on Cycloolefin Polymer

This study evaluates the peel strength between a cycloolefin polymer film and copper plating layer using a copper seed layer without an adhesion layer. A combination of vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) irradiation and oxygen plasma treatment was used as a pretreatment before forming the copper seed layer. This approach demonstrated a peel strength of 1 kN/m, surpassing that achieved with oxygen plasma treatment alone. Additionally, based on the peel strength and FTIR-ATR results, we propose a process model to elucidate the enhanced peel strength owing to the sequential application of VUV irradiation and oxygen plasma treatment.