Electrical resistivity under different humidity conditions for plasma-treated and gold-sputtered polyimide films

The gold layers deposited on partial aliphatic (5-(2,5-dioxotetrahydrofurfuryl)-3-methyl-3-cyclohexene-1,2-dicarboxylic acid anhydride-4,4′-oxydianiline) and aromatic (pyromellitic dianhydride-4,4′-oxydianiline) polyimide films, both modified by low pressure and high frequency plasma treatments in nitrogen atmosphere, were analyzed. Electrical resistivity, under different humidity conditions, was correlated with their chemical structure and morphological data (roughness, dimensions of gold granularly shaped grains, skewness and kurtosis distribution parameters) obtained by AFM measurements. The obtained results recommend these polyimide structures for applications in sensing technologies, especially as humidity sensors.