A study of optical properties of thin film polymer spin-coated with different dispensing methods

Abstract

Thin films of poly(methyl methacrylate), PMMA, were fabricated by using a spin-coating process with two different dispensing methods: static and dynamic ones. In the former and latter methods, the solution was dropped onto the substrate when the substrate was stationary and spinning, respectively. The films were characterised for their optical transmittance. The results show that the films from the dynamic dispensing method would provide higher optical transmittances than those from the static ones, indicating the thinner films. This could be explained as, in the dynamic method, the film would always be in a dynamic state and therefore could not form the film easily, resulting in a thinner film. Another point worth noting is that, in the dynamic method, the dispensing height affected the film's transmittance. The higher the dispensing height, the higher the transmittance. This indicated a thinner film and could be explained that, in the dynamic method, a higher dispensing height would result in a larger proportion of the liquid drop to bounce off the substrate, hence less amount of liquid remained to form the film, leading to a thinner film. Such characteristic did not appear in the static method because in this method, the liquid was dropped carefully and covered all the substrate before the spinning started. The results from this study could help choosing the dispensing method to provide film with required optical properties.