SBIR-STTR Award

The long term objective of this proposed research is to provide a commercial facility and reactors for the production of thin polymer hermetic insulating materials specifically developed of the physiological environment and for the prevention of electrolytic corrosion of integrated circuit metallizations and lead wires. The methods of polymer formation by plasma polymerization and vacuum bake technology will be utilized to prepare surfaces, provide intermediate layers of composite film encapsulation, and reduce the number of encapsulant processing steps currently in use. Specifically, this research will determine if plasma reactor conditions optimized for adhesion can be combined will vacuum bake technology to reduce the moisture content and improve the encapsulation of MOS integrated circuit devices. In addition, the correlation of plasma polymerization energy parameters and corrosion protection of circuit metallizations and bond wires will be investigated. Commercially, there exists a large potential market for totally implanted intelligent devices which are scaled to the dimensions of the anatomical analogues that they are to assist or replace. Size constraints prohibits the application of conventional encapsulation techniques by hermetic sealing in metal packages. A significant technological innovation in packaging technology can be achieved by the introduction of hermetic sealing by plasma polymer encapsulation.

Thesaurus Terms:
Biomedical Engineering, Biomedical Devices Implants And Compatibility, Blood And Re System, Blood, Plasma, Molecular Condensations, Polymers, Tissue Compatibility-Transplant, Implant Compatibility Biomaterials, Development And Preparation Of Biomaterials

The users of miniature sensors and integrated circuits in implant applications have few options in choosing a process which can hermetically encapsulate selective areas of the devices against the corrosive action of body fluids. The goal of this program is to complete the development and testing of the plasma polymerization/vapor deposition processes which demonstrated hermetic encapsulation of saline immersed CMOS integrated circuits for over 300 days in the Phase I study and adapt these methodologies to selective deposition/removal of the films to broaden their available commercial markets. The proposed Phase II plan will investigate alternate processing techniques for removal of water vapor and contaminants from the substrates, evaluate processes for selective deposition/removal of the hermetic encapsulants, determine the dielectric and chemical nature of the new materials synthesized and examine changes which occur with long-term saline soaking and voltage stressing.

Thesaurus Terms:
biomaterial development /preparation, biomaterial interface phenomena, biomedical engineering, biosensor, corrosion, electrical conductance, implant, plasma, polymer, polymerization body fluid, chemical structure, chemical synthesis, dielectric property, electrical potential, enzyme reactor, ion, metal, metal oxide, organic chemical, saline, semiconduction, surface property, vapor data collection, electrical measurement, infrared spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy, ultraviolet radiation