Aminealkylthiol and dithiol self-assembly as adhesion promoter between copper substrate and epoxy resin

To improve adhesion between copper and epoxy resin in printed circuit board, a roughness treatment of copper has been widely used. Nevertheless, new adhesion promoters have to be developed to face the miniaturization and sophistication of the electronic device. Self-assembled monolayers have met increasing interest in this field by using them as coupling agent between copper and the epoxy resin. This paper presents the deposition of an epoxy resin on copper modified by amine alkylthiol and dithiol monolayers and highlights the benefit brought by the monolayer in terms of adhesion. The chemical linkage between the amine SAMs and the epoxy function has been proved by the deposition on a short epoxy fragment, the 2-(4-fluorophenoxy-methyl)oxirane. The deposition of an epoxy resin mixed with amine curing agent has then been successfully achieved on amine terminated SAMs. The resulting polymer is homogeneous and well adherent on their surface, while the adhesion is lower on bare copper and not existing on methyl terminated SAMs. The formation of chemical bond Cu-S and N-epoxy is thus essential to increase the adhesion strength between copper and the polymer. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.