Surface treatment of hydrophobic ferroelectric polymers for printing

Abstract

An embodiment is a method and apparatus to treat surface of polymer for printing. Surface of a polymer having a surface energy modified for a time period to control a feature characteristic and/or provide a hysteresis behavior. A material is printed on the surface to form a circuit pattern having at least one of the controlled feature characteristic and the hysteresis behavior.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 modifying surface energy of surface of a polymer for a time period to control a feature characteristic and/or provide a hysteresis behavior; and   printing a material on the surface to form a circuit pattern having at least one of the controlled feature characteristic and the hysteresis behavior.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein modifying the surface energy comprises:
 exposing the surface of the polymer to/under at least one of an ultra-violet (UV) source and an ozone-generating source. 
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  wherein exposing the surface comprises:
 adjusting the time period such that the feature characteristic reaches a desired level. 
 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the feature characteristic includes at least one of a feature size, a feature uniformity, a contact angle, and a line width. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the polymer is a hydrophobic polymer or a ferroelectric material. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5  wherein the ferroelectric material is a Poly (Vinylidene Fluoride) (PVDF) co-polymer. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein printing the material comprises:
 printing a conductor or a semiconductor, including metal nanoparticles, or a polymeric ink on the surface. 
 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein printing the material comprises:
 printing the material on the surface using ink jet printing. 
 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7  wherein printing the metal or the polymeric ink comprises:
 printing a circuit including at least one of an active element and a passive element. 
 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9  wherein printing the circuit comprises:
 printing a non-volatile memory cell. 
 
     
     
         11 . A system comprising:
 at least one of an ultra-violet (UV) source and an ozone-generating source that generates ozone;   a polymer having a surface exposed to/under the at least one of the UV source and the ozone-generating source for a pre-determined time period, the surface having a surface energy modified to control a feature characteristic and/or provide a hysteresis behavior; and   an ink jet printer to print a circuit pattern on the surface with the modified surface energy.   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11  wherein the feature characteristic includes at least one of a feature size, a feature uniformity, a contact angle, and a line width. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11  wherein the polymer is a hydrophobic polymer or a ferroelectric material. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13  wherein the ferroelectric material is a Poly (Vinylidene Fluoride) (PVDF) co-polymer. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 11  wherein the circuit pattern comprises:
 a circuit including at least one of an active element and a passive element. 
 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 11  wherein the TFT circuit comprises:
 a non-volatile memory cell.