Adhesive bonding of fluoropolymers

Claim 1

A method for forming a multi-layered medical article having a substrate with a chemically inert surface, comprising: inserting a medical substrate having an inert fluoropolymer surface into a glow discharge reaction chamber; developing low pressure vacuum conditions within said glow dishcarge reaction chamber; pretreating the inert fluoropolymer surface in said reaction chamber and under said low pressure vacuum conditions with an inert gas glow discharge plasma to form a pretreated surface, said inert gas being selected from the group consisting of argon, helium and neon; thereafter subjecting a hydrocarbon monomer to low pressure glow discharge plasma deposition conditions by flowing a hydrocarbon monomer into and by applying energy within the reaction chamber under said low pressure vacuum conditions and adherently forming a thin plasma deposited hydrocarbon film onto the pretreated surface of the substrate, said adherent thin plasma deposited film including the hydrocarbon subjected to plasma deposition conditions, said step of adherently forming the thin plasma deposited film includes post-treating the plasma deposited polymer with an inert gas glow dishcarge plasma; applying an adhesive layer onto the thin plasma deposited film; and contacting another substrate with the adhesive layer in order to form the multi-layered medical article wherein the inert fluoropolymer surface of the substrate is bonded to said another substrate through the thin plasma deposited hydrocarbon film and the adhesive layer.

Claim 2

A method for forming a multi-layered medical article having a substrate with a chemically inert surface, comprising: inserting a medical substrate having an inert fluoropolymer surface into a glow discharge reaction chamber; developing low pressure vacuum conditions within said glow dishcarge reaction chamber; pretreating the inert fluoropolymer surface in said reaction chamber and under said low pressure vacuum conditions with an inert gas glow discharge plasma to form a pretreated surface, said inert gas being selected from the group consisting of argon, helium and neon; thereafter subjecting a hydrocarbon monomer to low pressure glow discharge plasma deposition conditions by flowing a hydrocarbon monomer into and by applying energy within the reaction chamber under said low pressure vacuum conditions and adherently forming a thin plasma deposited hydrocarbon film onto the pretreated surface of the substrate, said adherent thin plasma deposited film including the hydrocarbon subjected to plasma deposition conditions, said step of adherently forming the thin plasma deposited film includes post-treating the plasma deposited polymer with an inert gas glow dishcarge plasma; applying an adhesive layer onto the thin plasma deposited film; and contacting another substrate with the adhesive layer in order to form the multi-layered medical article wherein the inert fluoropolymer surface of the substrate is bonded to said another substrate through the thin plasma deposited hydrocarbon film and the adhesive layer.