High hydrophilic/hydrophobic contrast surfaces on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates were formed by shadow mask technique in electron cyclotron resonance generated sulfur hexafluoride plasma atmosphere. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses indicate that the unmasked PET surfaces contained a high proportion of the CF2-CF2 groups, and therefore were hydrophobic with large water contact angle. However, the surface wettability was found to increase drastically on the masked PET surfaces. This could be resulted from a mass of COF (acid fluoride) compounds observed by XPS on the masked film surfaces. The COF compounds could react with atmospheric moisture to form -COOH groups, which in turn increased the surface wettability. In addition, the surface wetting property of the masked areas was found to change significantly with the plasma treatment time, the mask-to-substrate distance and the storage time after the treatment. The best contract in water contact angle obtained from the treated PET samples was larger than 100 degrees after 168 h of storage. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.