Rapid and direct micro-machining/patterning of polymer materials by oxygen MeV ion beam irradiation through masks

PTFE (PolyTetraFluoroEthylene), often called Teflon, is a well-known polymer for being a non-stick material with good thermal properties. Moreover, PTFE is biocompatible and especially it is a cyto-compatible polymer. To enable bonding, a chemical etching based on sodium solutions is generally used to modify surfaces. In this paper we study the etching of PTFE using an oxygen ion beam in the MeV energy range. We present micro-patterning of PTFE through masks with two fluences of 5 × 10¹⁵ and 1 × 10¹⁶ ion cm⁻². As is demonstrated the use of a mask allows structuring of large areas while maintaining a distance between the mask and sample makes industrial applications possible.