Polyimide flexibility

Polyimide. Polyimide is a biaxiaHy oriented high performance film that is tough, flexible, and temperature- and combustion-resistant. Its room temperature properties compare to poly(ethylene terephthalate), but it retains these good characteristics at temperatures above 400°C. Its electrical resistance is good and it is dimensionally stable. The principal detriment is fairly high moisture absorbance. The main uses are for electrical insulation, particularly where high temperatures are prevalent or ionizing radiation is a problem. The films may be coated to reduce water absorption and enhance... 

A number of thermally stable polymers have been synthesized, but in general the types of stmctures that impart thermal resistance also result in poor processing characteristics. Attempts to overcome this problem have largely been concentrated on the incorporation of flexible groups into the backbone or the attachment of stable pendent groups. Among the class of polymers claimed to be thermally stable only a few have achieved technological importance, some of which are polyamides, polyimides, polyquin oxalines, polyquinolines, and polybenzimidazoles. Of these, polyimides have been the most widely explored. 

Flexible PCBs are produced in large quantities, usually consisting of polyester, polyimide, and polyimide—Teflon films. Both foil-laminated and uncoated versions are available. A modem complex multilayer board after final fabrication is shown in Figure 2. 

In 1990 the majority of U.S. PCB production resulted from subtractive or print-and-etch processing additive processes were less than 6% of the total multilayer boards accounted for 55.8%. The ratio of rigid to flexible surface areas plated is about 15 1. High performance plastics including polyimide. Teflon, and modified epoxy comprised 6% of the market ( 324 million) flexible circuits were 6.6% ( 360 million) (42). 

The melt viscosity of a polymer at a given temperature is a measure of the rate at which chains can move relative to each other. This will be controlled by the ease of rotation about the backbone bonds, i.e. the chain flexibility, and on the degree of entanglement. Because of their low chain flexibility, polymers such as polytetrafluoroethylene, the aromatic polyimides, the aromatic polycarbonates and to a less extent poly(vinyl chloride) and poly(methyl methacrylate) are highly viscous in their melting range as compared with polyethylene and polystyrene. 

A schematic cross-section of a p-i-n a-Si H solar cell [11] is shown in Figure 72a. In this so-called superstrate configuration (the light is incident from above), the material onto which the solar cell structure is deposited, usually glass, also serves as a window to the cell. In a substrate configuration the carrier onto which the solar cell structure is deposited forms the back side of the solar cell. The carrier usually is stainless steel, but flexible materials such as metal-coated polymer foil (e.g. polyimid) ora very thin metal make the whole structure flexible [11]. 

A,A -di(/>-dimethylamino-benzyl) derivatives of di(imidazolidinylidene)gold(i) salts were polymerized into polyimides by condensation with arene-tetracarboxylic anhydrides. The products are tough, but flexible, and have high glass transition temperatures and high thermal stability. Yellow films of the materials are transparent above 365 nm.279... 

Figure 12.12 Image of an organo-metallic palladium precursor solution that was deposited by the author on a flexible polyimide substrate via spin coating and thermally processed at 200 °C for 30 seconds.

Manufacture of Printed Wiring Boards. Printed wiring boards, or printed circuit boards, are usually thin flat panels than contain one or multiple layers of thin copper patterns that interconnect the various electronic components (e.g. integrated circuit chips, connectors, resistors) that are attached to the boards. These panels are present in almost every consumer electronic product and automobile sold today. The various photopolymer products used to manufacture the printed wiring boards include film resists, electroless plating resists (23), liquid resists, electrodeposited resists (24), solder masks (25), laser exposed photoresists (26), flexible photoimageable permanent coatings (27) and polyimide interlayer insulator films (28). Another new use of photopolymer chemistry is the selective formation of conductive patterns in polymers (29). 

Ha et al. demonstrated that dispersed TPD in a fluorine-containing polyimide matrix as a HTM has significantly improved device performance (Scheme 3.17) [91]. Flexible and fluorinated polyimide as a matrix exhibits the lowest turn-on voltage and a high EL efficiency [92]. 

It has been reported13 that in the preparation of polyimides the more flexible meta-linked diamine systematically gave lower DE values than the corresponding /mro-linked system and that this may be related to free volume in the polymer since the meta-substituted systems should have a higher degree of entropy. Therefore, the symmetrical meta-substitution in our aromatic structure may result in a reduction of DE. 

The polyimide foams are flexible and have a very low density (7 kg/m ), associated with good fire behaviour, a broad service temperature range and good soundproofing and thermal insulation qualities. These materials are sensitive to diluted strong bases, concentrated salts and acids. Other foams have densities varying from 15-250 kg/m. ... 

Zhou, W, Watari, T., Kita, H. and Okamoto, K. 2002. Gas permeation properties of flexible pyrolytic membranes from sulfonated polyimides. Chemistry Letters 5 534-535. 

Principally, one commercially available sulfonated diamine (4,4 -diamino-2,2 -biphenyl disulfonic acid) has been used to synthesize sulfonated polyimides. In addition to the commercially available diamine, several novel sulfonated diamines incorporating flexible or kinked structures have been prepared in Okamoto s lab. " The chemical structures and names of all five diamines are shown in Figure 23. 

A comparison of the hydrolytic stability of several sulfonated six-membered ring polyimides was previously investigated. Membranes were placed in distilled water at 80 °C until a loss of mechanical properties was observed. Improvements in membrane stability were observed for polymers with lower degrees of sulfonation (lower lEC) and for random copolymers, as opposed to block or sequenced copolymers. Additionally, the flexibility of the sulfonated diamine in the polymer structure was shown to play an important role in stability. By simply changing the sulfonated diamine from the rigid 4,4 -diamino-... 

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