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thickness VS spin‐coating speed
Problematic: What is the thickness of a spin coated PDMS layer?
The final thickness of a PDMS layer mainly depends of spin speed and spinning duration.
Important parameters to get reproducible thickness of PDMS layer are:
- Spinning speed
- Spinning duration
- Type of PDMS
- Ratio of reticulating agent and PDMS
- Duration between mixing of PDMS/reticulating agent and spin‐coating.
- Room temperature
Several publications give the thickness of the deposited layer depending on these conditions for
example [1] (fig. 1), or [2] and [3] (fig. 2).
30 60
Resulting PDMS thickness (µm)
Resulting PDMS thickness (µm)
25 50
20 40
15 30
1000 rpm
10 20
5 10
6000 rpm
0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Spin‐coating speed (rpm) Time (min)
Figure 1: Dependence of the PDMS layer thickness as a function of spin speed for a rotation
time of 5 min (left) and as a function of rotation time (right).
PDMS part A and part B (Sylgard 184, Dow Corning) mixed in a 10:1 (weight:weight) ratio and
steered during 2 minutes. The PDMS was placed in vacuum desiccators for degassing (10–13
minutes). Total preparation time: 15 minutes, figure modified from [1]
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Another source gives similar results on the thickness of the PDMS layer as a function of the spinning
speed [3]:
300
Literature Experiments
250
Resulting PDMS thickness (µm)
200
150
100
50
0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
Spin‐coating speed (rpm)
Spin‐coating speed (rpm) 500 1000 1500 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 8000
Balagadde et al.
220 77 52 36 28 19 13 8
(2005)
PDMS thickness (µm)
Measurements 20 12
Figure 2: PDMS thickness as a function of spin speed,
(Sylgard‐184 PDMS just after base and agent were mixed in a 10:1 ratio). Closed circles are
measurements with a spin time of t=30s, open circles are data points from [2] with t=60s,
and the solid line is the theoretical fit W=0.23 ω‐1.14 (W in meters, ω in rpm). The inset shows
the same plot on logarithmic scales [3].
References:
[1]: J. H. Koschwanez, R. H. Carlson, D. R. Meldrum, PLoS ONE 4:2 (2009)
[2]: F. K. Balagadde, L. You, C. L. Hansen, F. H. Arnold, S. R. Quake, Science 309:5731, 137‐140 (2005)
[3]: http://willem.engen.nl/uni/intern‐mbx/material/Sylgard‐184‐spincoat.php
Form’s authors: G. Velvé Casquillas, M. Le Berre, E. Terriac, F. Bertholle
For any comment or suggestions: contact@elveflow.com
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