Patent ID: 7695775

Claim:
A method converting a surface of a siloxane substrate from a hydrophobic nature, where a water droplet contact angle is in a range of about 90 degrees to about 130 degrees, to a hydrophilic nature, where said water droplet contact angle ranges from about 5 degrees to about 50 degrees, wherein said surface of said siloxane substrate is treated with ozone in the presence of UV radiation, wherein a biocompatible vapor-deposited coating is applied over said siloxane substrate treated with ozone in the presence of UV radiation, and where said biocompatible coating includes at least one organic functional layer, wherein said method comprises the steps of: a) exposing said surface of said siloxane substrate to an ozone-comprising gas in a processing chamber, wherein UV radiation is applied during exposure of said siloxane surface to said ozone-comprising gas; b) subsequently, without exposure of said ozone and UV radiation treated siloxane substrate to ambient conditions which contaminate or react with said treated surface, exposing said surface to a silicon chloride containing vapor in the presence of moisture, to form a hydrophilic silicon oxide layer on said treated siloxane substrate surface; and c) subsequently, without exposure of said hydrophilic silicon oxide layer to ambient conditions which contaminate or react with said hydrophilic silicon oxide layer, exposing said silicon oxide layer to a functionalized silane precursor vapor to form a layer selected from the group consisting of a monolayer, a self-aligned monolayer, and a polymerized cross-linked layer.