Individual ignition of RF microplasma array at atmospheric pressure

Following the trend of miniaturization in semiconductor industry, atmospheric plasma jets in array configuration were developed for cleaning or treatment of workpieces under homogeneous conditions. We describe here first, the development of a small array of five individual identical plasma cells where each cell is ignited and quenched individually, which can be upscaled to several tens or hundreds of cells. The power electronics for ignition of plasma is composed of a multiplexing system with a kHz high-voltage plasma ignition pulse and an RF-supply that can be distributed to each ignited cell to maintain the plasma in the respective cell. Experimental results show an ignition voltage for argon of 1300 V and RF-current per cell of 70 mA.

Automated summary

This study presents the development of a small array of plasma cells for cleaning or treating workpieces under homogeneous conditions. The array consists of multiple individual plasma cells that can be operated independently and scaled up to a larger size. Experimental results demonstrate good ignition and control characteristics of the array.