Piezoelectric Low Voltage Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Sources

2009 
Atmospheric pressure plasmas have become a great dealmore important in industry and science in recent years.The main reasons for this are cost reductions on the one hand and improvements in the integration of plasmadevices in existing productionlines, in comparisonto traditional low pressure plasma sources, on the other. Thisis due to the fact that expensive and technologicallycomplexvacuum systems are no longer required.Science and industry have succeeded in transferring many low pressure processes to the high pressure condi-tion. Commonexamplesaretheactivationofsurfaces,cleaningandcoating. Thetreatmentrateistypicallymuchhigher than in the low pressure region, but quality is often poor,especially in the case of deposition processes.Despite the advantages mentioned, “open” plasma sources (this means plasma sources not for the generationof light) have only recently become a common mass product. This is true, although interesting processes formedicine and household applications are known: atmospheric pressure plasmas have a strong sterilizing effectand they are a perfect tool for the treatment of wounds [2]; their effect on many synthetic surfaces to improveadhesion of glues has also been impressivelydemonstrated.The main problem of existing plasma devices is still their high level of complexity and critical difficulty forthe user in particular. Traditional atmospheric pressure plasma devices are typically connected to high voltageor high power radio and microwave sources. This leads to unacceptable radiation contamination of the directenvironment or to a high risk of electric shock. In addition, the necessary power supplies for these systems aretechnologicallydifficult and expensive. The potentialfor miniaturisation is very limited, too.Obviously, a new concept solving some of the problems mentioned would be of great technologicaland eco-nomic interest. The work presented here seems to be such a concept. Using piezo techniques, the componentsneeded for the generation of high electric fields became an integral part of the plasma source itself: no highvoltage or high frequency radiation is needed in the environment of the system. Electric energy is uniformlydistributed over the whole source. Thus, even in case of direct contact, only a very limited charge is transferredto the human body. This means that the proposedpiezoelectric structuresare harmless for the user.
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