Background Art A polymer material is widely used for various applications due to the lightness of weight, shape-forming property, processability, transparency, electric insulating property, or the like. In cases, it is necessary to modify only the surface properties of the polymer depending on its uses, and thus, it is necessary to perform a specific treatment on the surface of the polymer material, without changes in other properties of the entire polymer material. In specific, since the hydrophilic or hydrophobic property of the surface will significantly affect the wettability, printability, colorability, biocompatibility, antielectrostatic property, adhesiveness, water proofing property, vapor proofing property, and the like of the polymer material, various techniques are used in order to improve those properties.

Among the surface treatment methods for such a polymer material, there are a chemical treatment, a corona treatment, a plasma treatment, or the like. One of the typical methods of the

chemical treatment is a surface treatment method of fluorine-based polymer using Na/NH3 (see U. S. Patent No. 2,789, 063, British Patent GB 793,731). The method has an advantage of allowing to foresee the functional group formed on the surface of the polymer material by normal chemical reaction, but has a disadvantage of requiring complicated treatment processes, and causing waste materials as contaminants.

In the meantime, the corona discharge treatment which is carried out under the atmospheric pressure, is used in the surface treatment ofpolyolefine orpolyethylenetelephthalate film, etc. as packaging material (see J. Pochan, L. Gerenser, and J. Elman, Polymer, vol. 27 at page 1058,1986 publication). However, the method has a disadvantage that since its modified layer is very thin, it may be easily deteriorated as time goes by. Further, it is difficult to optimize the conditions of treatment process parameters such as atmospheric humidity, or the like.

The polymer surface treatment method using plasma under a low pressure includes a use of oxygen plasma to improve hydrophilic property of polypropylene, polyethylene, polystylene, etc. (see M. Morra, E. Occhiello, and F. Garbassi, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, vol. 39 at page 249,1999 publication), or the like.

Plasma is known as the fourth state of substance distinguishable from solid, liquid and gas, and may be referred to as partially ionized gas. It usually comprises electrons, positive ions, neutral atoms, and neutral molecules, etc. When an electric power is applied to a gas particle, the peripheral electrons of the gas atoms are departed from the orbit and become free electrons, and the gas atom exhibits positive charge. Such electrons and ionized gas atoms generated as the above maintain the neutral state all together, and emit specific light by the mutual interaction of the component elements, so that the elements are activated and excited to allow high reactivity.

The plasma treatment has advantages of allowing to select a reactant gas and control the process

parameters such as treatment pressure, etc. with compared to the corona treatment, but it also has a problem of the deterioration as time goes by after being treated since its modified surface layer is thin.

Further, there is recently introduced a method of injecting the ion beam of inert atoms (Ar) into a polymer material in the presence of oxygen to improve its hydrophilic property (see S.

Koh, S. Song, W. Choi, and H. Jung, Journal of Materials Research, vol. 10 at page 2390,1995 publication), but this method has disadvantages of the rapid decrease of the hydrophilic property as time goes by, and the complicated apparatus structure because of using the ion beam inevitably, and difficulty in treating the surface with large size uniformly.

In the meantime, U. S. Patent No. 4,764, 394 titled'Method and apparatus for plasma source ion implantation"is known as a prior art suitable for an ion implantation of a tridimensional object.

Korean Patent Publication KR 1987-7562 discloses a surface treatment method which performs various surface treatment on the surface of semiconductors, metal or insulating materials, such as surface etching, surface modification, surface cleaning7 impurities implantation into the surface, thin film deposition on the surface, or the like, and a surface treatment apparatus used in the same. Herein, the method includes a process of applying an ion beam including at least one species of atoms on the surface of a solid target, so as to scatter particles from the surface of the target toward the front, and generate a scattering particle beam including the at least one species of atoms, and injecting the particle beam toward the surface of an object, thereby etching or modifying the surface of the object, or depositing a thin filin on the surface of the object.

Korean Patent Publication KR 1997-73239 discloses a surface modification method for improving the hydrophilic property or hydrophobic property of the surface of a polymer material

by plasma ion implantation, and an apparatus used in the same. The method includes steps of : locating a sheet-shaped polymer material on a plate inside a vacuum chamber ; introducing plasma source gas into the vacuum chamber, generating ion plasma from the introduced plasma source gas; and implanting the ions extracted from the plasma with a high energy into the surface of the polymer material by applying negative high voltage pulse into the polymer object, in which the pulse voltage is-1 kV to-20 kV, the voltage in the pulse offis 0 V to-1 kV, the pulse width is 1 jus to 50 us, and the pulse frequency is 10 Hz to 500 kHz.

However, the methods are not intended to improve the antielectrostatic property and the conductibility property, or the like but good for improving the hydrophilic property or hydrophobic property ofthe polymer materials.

In the case of antielectrostatic and conductive polymer, conductive carbon and carbon fiber are mixed with the polymer and, but after forming, the carbon and the particles of the carbon fiber are peeled off from the antielectrostatic and conductive polymer to cause a serious damage on the polymer product, and particles are attached on electronics, semiconductors, and LCD (liquid crystal display) to cause a serious damage on the patterns or the chips thereof.

Sometimes, it is impossible to expect the antielectrostatic effect in case of the use of the antielectrostatic material for the antielectrostatic effect since the antielectrostatic effect itself is disappeared as time goes by.

In the case of the product, which is fabricated by immersing itself into a solution made by dissolving conductive polymer ofpolypyrrole and polyaniline, or a solution including aromatic polymer and atactic polymer, taking out, and drying, the product is so vulnerable to scratch or moisture to lose the antielectrostatic effect and the conductibility.

Further, in the case of the surface modification of polymer using an ion beam, a mass production through continuous process is hardly expected in the aspect of production yield, and the fabrication process involves difficult and inconvenient steps and tools in which a beam should be accelerated, and the area having neutrons should be isolated with the beam scattered, and furthermore, a jig for rotating an object should be employed to perform ion implantation in three- dimensional space.

Korean Patent Publication KR 2002-20010 discloses a surface modification method for improving the surface properties and conductibility of a tridimensional polymer material and a product thereof, and an apparatus used in the same, by using plasma ion implantation technology.

The method discloses surface treatment of tridimensional polymer material by plasma ion implantation using a grid, and includes the steps of (a) locating tridimensional polymer material in a grid inside a vacuum chamber ; (b) locating the grid distanced from the material surface inside the vacuum chamber, (c) generating gas plasma ions to form a graphite layer on the material surface inside the vacuum chamber to decrease resistivity ; and (d) applying negative voltage pulse on the grid so as to inject the gas plasma ion into the material surface. However, the method has a problem of being not suitable to be employed in mass production.

Disclosure of the Invention Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a continuous surface treatment method of tridimensional-shaped polymer by plasma ion implantation by negative voltage pulse, for improving antistatic characteristics of the polymer surface, conductibility, and the like, that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims thereof as well as the appended drawings.

To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides a continuous surface treatment apparatus of tridimensional-shaped polymer, which may include a high frequency power supplying device for generating plasma and thus, injecting ions, and having a high frequency power supplying unit, a matching box, and an antenna ; a gas introducing unit for supplying process gas to be ionized for plasma ; a gas supplying unit connected to the gas introducing unit ; a processing chamber having a vacuum pump and the like ; a leading-in chamber, and an leading-out chamber, which are installed before and after the processing chamber respectively with adjacent thereto, and are adapted to be gas-exhaustible ; a transferring unit installed to sequentially pass by through the leading-in chamber, the processing chamber, and the leading-out chamber, transferring means for driving the transferring unit ; and doors being positioned in the leading-in chamber and the leading-out chamber respectively, and in partitions between the leading-in chamber and the processing chamber, and between the processing chamber and the leading-out chamber respectively, and automatically capable of being opened/closed so that the transferring unit can pass by therethrough.

The transferring means may be transferring rollers installed to be rotatable.

The transferring unit may include a transferring plate; a transferring wing integrally fixed on top of the transferring plate and variable with contact on the transferring rollers ; and a

fixture integrally fixed on bottom of the transferring plate and adapted to hang or fix a tcidimensional-shaped polymer.

The surface treatment apparatus may further include a pre-processing chamber, which is installed with adjacent to the leading-in chamber in order to pre-treat the tridimensional-shaped polymer to be surface-treated by supplying a dried hot air at a temperature of70°C to 85°C to the tridimensional-shaped polymer, and the pre-processing chamber may include a fan for supplying hot air into the pre-processing chamber, a first cutoff valve for cutting off the flow of the hot air supplied to the fan, a second cutoffvalve for cutting off the flow of the air to be discharged from the pre-processing chamber to vacuumize the pre-processing chamber, and a vacuum pump for discharging the air from the pre-processing chamber through the second cutoffvalve.

An air compressor may be further connected to the first cutoffvalve to generate hot air.

The pre-processing chamber can be structured such that two discrete chambers are provided in parallel and for this purpose, a second pre-processing chamber may be installed with adjacent to the pre-processing chamber. The second pre-processing chamber may include a second fan for supplying hot air into the pre-processing chamber, a third cutoff valve for cutting off the flow of the hot air supplied to the second fan, a fourth cutoff valve for cutting off the flow of the air to be discharged from the second pre-processing chamber to vacuumize the pre- processing chamber, and a vacuum pump for discharging the air from the pre-processing chamber through the fourth cutoff valve. The vacuum pump may be one vacuum pump, which can be commonly used passing through the second cutoff valve and the fourth cutoff valve. Further, the air compressor for generating hot air may be commonly used passing through the third cutoff valve.

To further achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, the present invention provides a continuous surface treatment method for tridimensional-shaped polymer by surface modification using plasma ion implantation technology, and the method may include steps of : (1) loading a tridimensional-shaped polymer product to be processed into a gas-exhaustible leading-in chamber (leading-in) ; (2) decompressing and gas-exhausting the inside of the leading-in chamber into which the tridimensional-shaped polymer product is loaded (first vacuumization) ; (3) transferring the tridimensional-shaped polymer product inside the leading-in chamber to a processing chamber (first transfer) ; (4) performing surface-treatment on the tridimensional-shaped polymer product inside the processing chamber by using plasma (surface treatment) ; (5) decompressing and gas- exhausting the inside of a gas-exhaustible leading-out chamber (second vacuumization) ; (6) transferring the surface-treatment completed tridimensional-shaped polymer product into the vacuumized leading-out chamber (second transfer) ; and (7) unloading the tridimensional-shaped polymer product inside the leading-out chamber to the exterior (leading-out).

Before or after the (2) first vacuumization step, the method may further include a step of performing another pre-treatment by applying hot air on the tridimensional-shaped polymer product inside the leading-in chamber to remove moisture therefrom.

The (4) surface-treatment step may be carried out by continuously supplying process gas including argon, nitrogen, or these mixture to the processing chamber at a rate of 15 to 100 sccm under the process conditions of 20 to 30 ms of pulse width, 500 to 1,500 Hz of high frequency for plasma generation, and 21 to 25 KV of high voltage pulse.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the knowing detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

Brief Description of the Drawings The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.

In the drawings: FIG. 1 is a view to illustrate the structural configuration of one specific example of a continuous surface treatment apparatus of tridimensional-shaped polymer according to one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a perspective view to illustrate one specific example of a transferring unit being used in the apparatus of FIG. 1; and FIG. 3 is a view to illustrate the structural configuration of one specific example of a pretreatment unit adapted to be connected to the continuous surface treatment apparatus of tridimensional-shaped polymer according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the continuous surface treatment apparatus of tridimensional- shaped polymer according to one embodiment of the present invention is structured to essentially include a surface treatment apparatus, which is composed of a high frequency power supplying device for generating plasma and thus, injecting ions, and having a high frequency power supplying unit 27, a matching box 26, and an antenna 25 ; a gas introducing unit 71 for supplying process gas to be ionized for plasma ; a gas supplying unit 72 connected to the gas introducing unit 71; and a processing chamber 21 having a vacuum pump and the like. The continuous surface treatment apparatus further includes a leading-in chamber 11, and an leading-out chamber 31, which are installed before and after the processing chamber 21 respectively with adjacent thereto, and are adapted to be gas-exhaustible; a transferring unit 51 installed to sequentially pass by through the leading-in chamber 11, the processing chamber 21, and the leading-out chamber 31 ; transferring means for driving the transferring unit 51 ; and doors being positioned in the leading in chamber 11 and the leading-out chamber 31 respectively, and in partitions between the leading- in chamber 11 and the processing chamber 21, and between the processing chamber 21 and the leading-out chamber 31 respectively, and automatically capable of being opened/closed so that the transferring unit 51 can pass by therethrough.

It can be understood that the surface treatment apparatus of tridimensional-shaped polymer, which is composed of the high frequency power supplying device for generating plasma and thus, injecting ions, and having the high frequency power supplying unit 27, the matching box 26, and the antenna 25 ; the gas introducing unit 71 for supplying process gas to be ionized for plasma ; the gas supplying unit 72 connected to the gas introducing unit 71; and the processing chamber 21 having a vacuum pump and the like, is publicly known as much as commercially available to those skilled in this art. In the surface treatment apparatus using plasma, process gas

to be ionized is supplied into the vacuumized processing chamber 21, and a high frequency power is applied to a strong magnetic field to partially ionize the process gas and thus, generate plasma, so called a fourth material state. Then, an object to be processed is placed on a plate or the like, charged by a high voltage, or inside a grid 24. Among the ions in the plasma, ions having an opposite polarity to that of the current applied to the plate or the grid 24 are electrostatically induced by the high voltage pulse mostly applied to the grid 24 or the like, and applied on the surface of the object, so as to achieve an ion injection on the surface of the object. That is, in a typical surface treatment apparatus described as above, the surface treatment apparatus according to the present invention further includes the leading-in chamber 11, and the leading-out chamber 31, which are installed before and after the processing chamber 21 adjacent thereto respectively, in order to continuously perform a surface treatment on an object to be processed, in the typical surface treatment apparatus. The leading-in chamber 11, and the leading-out chamber 31 have vacuum pumps or the like respectively, in order to exhaust gas therefrom. In addition, the surface treatment apparatus according to the present invention includes the transferring unit 51, which is installed in the leading-in chamber 11, the processing chamber 21, and the leading-out chamber 31, capable of passing by through those chambers sequentially ; and transferring means for driving the transferring unit 51.

Further, the transferring unit 51 can be moved by the transferring means, and preferably, the transferring means may employ transfening rollers 61, which are installed in the leading-in chamber 11, the processing chamber 21, and the leading-out chamber 31, being able to rotate thereinside.

ThetransferLingutiit 51, beingmovedbythetransferLingrollers 61, as shown in FIG. 2, includes a transferring plate 52, a transferring wing 53 integrally fixed on top of the transferring

plate 52 and variable with contact on the rollers, and a fixture 54 integrally fixed on bottom of the transferring plate 52 and adapted to hang or fix a tridimensional-shaped polymer 41. The above description is limited to specific examples of the transferring roller 61 and the transferring unit 51 being movable by the transferring rollers 61, but other means are possible if they can transfer the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41. Further, other means are possible only if material making of the transferring unit 51 and the transferring roller 61 equal to or similar to a stainless steel making of the processing chamber 21, and the material gives no impact on plasma, or high frequency power, high voltage pulse, or the like.

To transfer the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 by the transferring unit 51, the continuous surface treatment apparatus of the present invention further includes doors which are installed in the leading-in chamber 11, the leading-out chamber 31, and the partition between the leading-in chamber 11 and the processing chamber 21, and the partition between the processing chamber 21 and the leading-out chamber 31, and capable of being automatically opened/closed to allow the transferring unit 51 to pass therethrough. The doors can be opened/closed by driving means such as solenoid, pneumatic cylinder, hydraulic cylinder, or the like, which are publicly known. When they are opened, the transferring unit 51 fixing the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 fixed thereon can pass therethrough, and when they are closed, they can intercept the permeation of air, so that the chambers can maintain a predetermined vacuum state. More preferably, the doors have sliding door-typed structures so as to be opened/closed in a short time so that the chambers are sealed right after the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 pass therethrough, and thus, the doors are opened/closed as narrow opening width as the lowest width level of the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 so that the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 pass therethrouAh, which are understood to be publicly known to those skilled in the art

As shown in FIG. 3, a pre-processing chamber 81 is further provided with adjacent to the leading-in chamber 11 in order to pre-treat the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 to be surface-treated by supplying a dried hot air at a temperature of 70°C to 85°C to the tridimensional- shaped polymer 41. The pre-processing chamber 81 includes a fan 82 for supplying hot air into the pre-processing chamber 81, a first cutoff valve 83 for cutting off the flow of the hot air supplied to the fan 82, a second cutoff valve 85 for cutting off the flow of the air to be discharged from the pre-processing chamber 81 to vacuumize the pre-processing chamber 81, and a vacuum pump for discharging the air from the pre-processing chamber 81 through the second cutoff valve 85. An air compressor 84 may be further connected to the first cutoff valve 83 to generate hot air.

The pre-processing chamber 81 can be structured such that two discrete chambers are provided in parallel, and for this purpose, a second pre-processing chamber 87 is installed with adjacent to the pre-processing chamber 81. The second pre-processing chamber 87 includes a second fan 88 for supplying hot air into the pre-processing chamber 81, a third cutoff valve 89 for cutting off the flow of the hot air supplied to the second fan 88, a fourth cutoff valve 90 for cutting offthe flow ofthe air to be discharged from the second pre-processing chamber 87 to vacuumize the pre-processing chamber 81, and a vacuum pump for discharging the air from the pre- processing chamber 81 through the fourth cutoff valve 90. The vacuum pump may be one vacuum pump, which can be commonly used passing through the second cutoff valve 85 and the fourth cutoff valve 90. Further, the air compressor 84 for generating hot air may be commonly used passing through the third cutoff valve 89.

Further, a pro-treatment can be performed in the leading-in chamber 11 by employment of hot air therein even without the installation of the pre-processing chamber 81, by installing on

the leading-in chamber 11 the fan 82, cutoff valves for cutting off the flow of hot air, and the air compressor 84 passing these valves and connected thereto, which are installed in the pre- processing chamber 81.

In the construction described as above, and in reference to FIG. 1, the first door 13 is opened, and the transferring unit 51 for transferring the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 with the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 fixed thereto, is loaded into the leading-in chamber 11 through the first open door 13, and then, the first door 13 is closed. The inside of the leading-in chamber 11 is vacuumized sufficiently by the operation of the vacuum pump, and the second door 28 between the leading-in chamber 11 and the processing chamber 21 is opened. By driving the transferring roller 61, the transferring unit 51 is transferred into the processing chamber 21 to locate the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 fixed to the transferring unit 51 inside the grid 24 inside the processing chamber 21, and then, the second door 28 is closed. Then, plasma treatment is performed. The plasma treatment is identical to, or similar to a conventional plasma treatment. That is, the inside of the processing chamber 21 is vacuumized, process gas is introduced thereinto, and a high frequency power is applied thereto through the antenna 25 by driving the high frequency power supplying unit 27, the matching box 26, and the high voltage pulse generating unit 23, so as to generate plasma. As a result, positive ions are electrostatistically induced toward the grid 24, having high voltage pulses applied thereon, and injected into the surface of the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 located inside the grid 24.

After the surface treatment is completed, the third door 33 between the processing chamber 21 and the leading-out chamber 31 is opened, and by driving the transferring roller 61, the transferring unit 51 is transferred into the leading-out chamber 31. The transferring unit 51, which is transferred into the leading-out chamber 31, passes through the fourth door 34, and is

moved out of the leading-out chamber 31 to the exterior by driving the transferring roller 61.

With the opening of the fourth door 34, the transferring unit 51 is loaded out, and then, with the closing of the fourth door 34, the inside of the leading-out chamber 31 is vacuumized. The vacuumization of the leading-out chamber 31 serves to prevent the exterior air from being introduced into the processing chamber 21 during the opening of the third door 33 in the subsequent step, so that the process conditions for performing subsequent steps are recovered in the processing chamber 21 in quick time, and thus, helps the processing chamber 21 to be prepared to perform surface treatment. By the above method, the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 can be continuously surface-treated. The transferring unit 51 can be repeatedly used by loading the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 to be processed into the leading-in chamber 11 with the polymer 41 fixed thereto, and taking offthe tridimensional-shaped polymer 41, which is processed and loaded out.

In addition, the description will be made on the continuous surface treatment method of a tridimensional-shaped polymer according to the present invention to modify the surface thereof using plasma ion injection technology, and the method includes the steps of : (1) loading the tridimensional-shaped polymer product to be processed into a leading-in chamber, which is gas- exhaustible (leading-in) ; (2) decompressing the inside of the leading-in chamber into which the tridimensional-shaped polymer is loaded, and exhausting the gas therefrom (first vacuumization); (3) transferring the tridimensional-shaped polymer inside the leading-in chamber to the processing chamber (first transfer) ; (4) treating the surface of the tridimensional-shaped polymer, which is transferred into the processing chamber, by using plasma (surface-treatment) ; (5) decompressing the inside of the leading-out chamber, which is gas-exhaustible, and exhausting gas therefrom (second vacuumization) ; (6) transferring the surface-treated the tridimensional-shaped polymer to

the vacuumized leading-out chamber (second transfer) ; and (unloading the tridimensional- shaped polymer inside the leading-out chamber to the exterior (leading-cut).

The (1) leading-in step is to load the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 product to be processed into the gas-exhaustible leading-in chamber 11 in order to serve as a pre-treatment process such that the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 product is continuously supplied into the processing chamber 21 without any influence on the vacuum degree in the processing chamber 21. Then, the (2) first vacuumization step is to decompress and gas-exhaust the inside of the leading-in chamber 11 into which the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 product is loaded. By vacuumizing the inside of the leading-in chamber 11 in the (2) first vacuumization step as above, when the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 product to be processed inside the leading-in chamber 11 is transferred to the processing chamber 21 by the transferring unit, the internal process conditions inside the processing chamber 21, such as the vacuum degree of the processing chamber 21, or the like are little influenced, and the processing chamber 21 is prepared enough with the conditions for transferring the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 product into the processing chamber 21. Then, the (3) first transfer step is to transfer the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 product inside the leading-in chamber 11 to the processing chamber 21.

Subsequently, in the (4) surface-treatment step, surface-treatment is performed on the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 product transferred into the processing chamber 21 by using plasma. The (5) second vacuumization step is to decompress and gas-exhaust the inside of the gas-exhaustible leading-out chamber 31. On the contrary, by vacuumizing the inside of the leading-out chamber 31, the surface-treatment completed tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 product can be transferred into the leading-out chamber 31 without any influence on the vacuum degree inside the processing chamber 21. Then, in the (6) second transfer step, the surface-

treatment completed tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 product is transferred into the leading-out chamber 31, which is vacuumized. In the (7) leading-out step, the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41, which is transferred into the leading-out chamber 31, is loaded out of the leading-out chamber 31 after surface-treatment is completed, and another tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 product is loaded in continuously for surface-treatment Before or after the (2) first vacuumization step, a pre-treatment can be further performed by applying hot air on the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 product inside the leading-in chamber 11 to remove moisture or the like therefrom. The pre-treatment is intended to heat the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 product previously, to facilitate the ion-injection into the surface of the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 more deeply. In the pre-treatment, hot air at a temperature of 70 °C to 85'C can be applied thereon to remove moisture, and the tridimensional- shaped polymer 41 can be locally heated. The heating temperature is varied depending on the kinds of the polymer forming the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 product, physical properties and size thereof, or the like. Appropriate heating temperature can be determined by experiment theoretically or by experience to those skilled in the art.

The (4) surface-treatment step is performed by supplying process gas including argon, nitrogen, or mixture thereof to the processing chamber 21 continuously at a rate of 15 to 100 seem, and applying process conditions in that a pulse width is 20 ms to 30 ms, a high frequency for plasma generation is 500 Hz to 1,500 Hz, and a high voltage is 21 KV to 25 KV. The process condition can be varied depending on the kinds, size, and shape of the tridimensional- shaped polymer 41, or the like, and appropriate processing conditions can be determined theoretically or by experience, and ion-injection for the surface-treatment can be performed according thereto, which can be understood to those skilled in the art.

The tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 as an object, which is processed by the surface- treatment apparatus and the surface-treatment method according to the present invention described as above, may include all kinds of publicly known polymer, and preferably includes vinyl polymer 41 group, such as low density polyethylene (LDPE), linear low density polyethylene gLDPE), high densitypolyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) or the like, nylon group such as nylon 6, nylon 11, nylon 12, nylon 66, or the like, and polycarbonate (PC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), ylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS), styrene-acrylonitile copolymer (SAN), polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), polyetherimide (PEI), polyimide », modified poly phenylene oxide (MPPO), modified polysulfone (MPSU), modified polyether (MPES), polyether ether ketone (PEEK), or the like.

Now hereinafter, preferred embodiments and comparative examples according to the present invention will be described.

The description on following embodiments is just intended to provide exemplary examples of the present invention, and it is to be understood not to limit the scope of the present invention.

Embodiments 1 and 2 By using the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1, the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 to be processed, polyethylene product is loaded into the leading-in chamber 11, and the inside of the leading-in chamber 11 is decompressed, gas-exhausted, and vacuumized. After the vacuumization is completed, the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 product inside the leading-in chamber 11 is transferred into the processing chamber 21, and plasma surface-treatment is performed with process conditions described in following Table 1. Then, after the inside of the leading-out chamber 31 is decompressed, gas-exhausted, and vacuumized, the surface-treatment

completed tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 product is transferred into the vacuumized leading- out chamber 31, and is finally transferred out of the leading-out chamber 31. As a result, the ion density during processing, and the surface resistance of the tridimensional-shaped polymer as an object after the bmtment are measured, and the results are shown in Table 1.

[Table 11 process process pulse frequency high ion surface gas gas width) voltage density resistance (Argon, (Nitrogen, (ms) (eco) (ea/cm2) (Q/cm2) scan) sccm) embodiment 1 38 - 20 500 25 1010 107#108 embodiment 2 25 14 25 650 21.6 1011 107#108

Industrial Applicability Therefore, according to the present invention, the surface resistance as low as l (f to 108 S2/cm2is obtained, thereby improving the antistatic characteristics and the conductibility of the surface of the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41, or the like, and continuous surface treatment for the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 is possible, thereby making it easier to mass-produce the tridimensional-shaped polymer 41 product.

While the present invention has been described and illustrated herein with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention that come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.