Polymers 2012, 4, 656-673; doi:10.3390/polym4010656 polymers ISSN 2073-4360 www.mdpi.com/journal/polymers Article Fabrication and Packaging of Flexible Polymeric Microantennae for in Vivo Magnetic Resonance Imaging Magdalèna Couty 1,2,3 , Marion Woytasik 1,2 , Jean-Christophe Ginefri 2,4 , Anne Rubin 1,2,5 , Emile Martincic 1,2 , Marie Poirier-Quinot 2,4 , Luc Darrasse 2,4 , Fawzi Boumezbeur 5 , Franck Lethimonnier 5 , Michael Tatoulian 3 and Elisabeth Dufour-Gergam 1,2, * 1 Univ. Paris Sud, Laboratoire IEF (Institut d’Electronique Fondamentale), UMR-8622, Bat. 220, F-91405 Orsay, France; E-Mails: magdalena.couty@u-psud.fr (M.C.); marion.woytasik@u-psud.fr (M.W.); emile.martincic@u-psud.fr (E.M.); 2 CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique), F-91405 Orsay, France; E-Mails: jean-christophe.ginefri@u-psud.fr (J.-C.G.); anne.rubin@ics-cnrs.unistra.fr (A.R.); marie.poirier-quinot@u-psud.fr (M.P.-Q.); luc.darrasse@u-psud.fr (L.D.) 3 LGPPTS (Laboratoire du Génie des Procédés Plasmas et Traitements de Surface), Chimie ParisTech/UPMC EA3492, 11 rue Pierre et Marie Curie, F-75005 Paris, France; E-Mail: michael-tatoulian@chimie-paristech.fr (M.T.) 4 Univ. Paris Sud, Laboratoire IR4M (Imagerie par Résonance Magnétique Médicale et Multi-Modalités), UMR-8081, Bat. 220, F-91405, Orsay, France 5 I2BM (Institut d’Imagerie BioMédicale), Neurospin, CEA Saclay, Bat. 145, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France; E-Mails: fawzi.boumezbeur@cea.fr (F.B.); franck.lethimonnier@cea.fr (F.L.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: elisabeth.dufour-gergam@u-psud.fr; Tel.: +33-169-157-723; Fax: +33-169-154-080. Received: 23 December 2011; in revised form: 14 January 2012 / Accepted: 15 February 2012 / Published: 27 February 2012 Abstract: In this paper, we detail how microantennae dedicated to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) can benefit from the advantages offered by polymer substrates, especially flexibility and dielectric properties. We present a monolithic and wireless design based on the transmission lines between conductor windings on both sides of a dielectric substrate and its fabrication process. This last one requires specific plasma treatments to improve polymer/metal adhesion. We have led a comparative study on the effects of the ageing time on the wettability and the metal adhesion to Kapton and Teflon surfaces. Correlation OPEN ACCESS