Electrical Breakdown of Plasma-Polymerized Styrene Thin Films

The electrical breakdown of plasma-polymerized styrene thin film (PPS) was studied by taking advantage of self-healing. The electric strength F B was almost independent of temperature from -196 to 200°C, and strongly depended on the rate of voltage increase even at a slow rate of increase. The breakdown characteristics were influenced by the electrode metal and the ambient atmosphere, but not by X-ray irradiation or photoillumination. The experimental results are used to discuss the breakdown mechanism of PPS through existing breakdown theories. As a result, no single breakdown process was considered as a possible breakdown mechanism, and we thus obtained important conditions for presenting a new breakdown model; the breakdown of PPS will be determined by a thermal criterion, and it will be closely related to a temperature-independent injection process.