Design of novel dual-port tapered waveguide plasma apparatus by numerical analysis

Microwave plasma apparatus is often of particular interest due to their superiority of low cost, electrode contamination free, and suitability for industrial production. However, there exist problems of unstable plasma and low electron density in conventional waveguide apparatus based on single port, due to low strength and non-uniformity of microwave field. This study proposes a novel dual-port tapered waveguide plasma apparatus based on power-combining technique, to improve the strength and uniformity of microwave field for the applications of plasma. A 3D model of microwave-induced plasma (field frequency 2.45 GHz) in argon at atmospheric pressure is presented. On the condition that the total input power is 500 W, simulations indicate that coherent power-combining will maximize the electric-field strength to 3.32 × 105 V/m and improve the uniformity of distributed microwave field, which raised 36.7% and 47.2%, respectively, compared to conventional waveguide apparatus of single port. To study the optim...