Publication Date:
2015-08-01
Description:
Certain applications of evolving flexible technologies demand that metallic features remain both mechanically robust (crack-free) and electrically stable for large macroscopic mechanical deformation. Examples of this are flexible radio frequency transmission line technologies and soft metamaterials where electromagnetic properties (e.g., functionality and losses), which rely on the integrity of metallic features, are highly sensitive to shape and resistance variation. In this context, we demonstrate here the ability to deposit crack-free chromium/gold metallized mesa structures on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates using thermal evaporation. In order to achieve this, the PDMS is exposed to an optimized oxygen plasma prior to the metallization. A shadow mask allowed us to define specific arrays of metallic mesa features having different sizes (100–600 μ m) and surface filling factors on plasma-treated and non-treated PDMS. In contrast to non-treated PDMS, we demonstrate for a loading strain 〉45% that the local metal mesa strain is
Print ISSN:
0021-8979
Electronic ISSN:
1089-7550
Topics:
Physics
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