EFFECT OF PRECURSOR HISTORY ON RESIDUAL-STRESS AND RELAXATION BEHAVIOR OF HIGH-TEMPERATURE POLYIMIDES

Using a wafer bending technique, residual stress and its relaxation were investigated for four different kinds of high temperature polyimides: rodlike PMDA-PDA, semi-rigid BPDA-PDA, semi-flexible PMDA-ODA, and flexible BTDA-ODA. Residual stress was measured in situ on silicon wafers during thermal imidization of the polyimide precursors and subsequent cooling of the resulting polyimides as a function of temperature over the range of 25-400-degrees-C. The stress of the cured films at room temperature was significantly relaxed by the moisture uptake of the films rather than their creep behaviour. Both residual stress and moisture-induced stress relaxation in the cured polyimide films were strongly dependent upon the molecular nature (that is, molecular chain rigidity, degree of molecular orientation and packing), as well as the precursor origin. In addition, the diffusion coefficients of water in the cured polyimide films were estimated by best-fitting stress relaxation against time profiles.