Effect of atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment on the adhesion properties of a thin adhesive layer in a selective transfer process

Highlights: • A thin adhesive silicone layer was treated by atmospheric pressure plasma to control the adhesion strength. • The adhesion strength of the layer was reduced after the plasma treatment, while its surface energy was increased. • It was confirmed that a thin, hard, silica-like layer had formed on the surface from plasma-enhanced oxidation. • The silica-like layer played an important role in increasing the interfacial slippage, resulting in decreased adhesion. • The usefulness of the plasma treatment was demonstrated for the selective transfer process of GaN LEDs. The adhesion between a stamp and thin film devices is crucial for their transfer on a flexible substrate. In this paper, a thin adhesive silicone layer on the stamp was treated by atmospheric pressure plasma to locally control the adhesion strength for the selective transfer. The adhesion strength of the silicone layer was significantly reduced after the plasma treatment, while its surface energy was increased. To understand the inconsistency between the adhesion strength and surface energy changes, the surface properties of the silicone layer were characterized using nanoindentation and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. These techniques revealed that a thin, hard, silica-like layer had formed on the surface from plasma-enhanced oxidation. This layer played an important role in decreasing the contact area and increasing the interfacial slippage, resulting in decreased adhesion. As a practical application, the transfer process was demonstrated on GaN LEDs that had been previously delaminated by a laser lift-off (LLO) process. Although the LEDs were not transferred onto the treated adhesive layer due to the reduced adhesion, the untreated adhesive layer could readily pick up the LEDs. It is expected that this simple method of controlling the adhesion of a stamp with a thin adhesive layer would enable a continuous, selective and large-scale roll-to-roll selective transfer process and thereby advance the development of flexible, stretchable and wearable electronics.