AVS 56th International Symposium & Exhibition
    Advanced Surface Engineering Monday Sessions
       Session SE-MoA

Invited Paper SE-MoA1
Production-scale Processing of Flexible Substrates using High Power, Low Temperature, Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Technology

Monday, November 9, 2009, 2:00 pm, Room C4

Session: Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas
Presenter: G.S. Selwyn, APJeT, Inc.
Correspondent: Click to Email

The application of vacuum-based plasmas in semiconductor processing has helped lead the microelectronics revolution and today is a highly-developed and mature technology. However, the high cost of operation and maintenance for vacuum-based plasma, along with the limitation for treating vacuum-compatible substrates, greatly limits future applications using this technology. In contrast to the vast expansion of vacuum-based plasma over the last 30 years, non-equilibrium, atmospheric-pressure plasma has a 125 year history dating back to Siemen’s original invention of the dielectric barrier discharge. Yet, the applications for atmospheric pressure plasma industry represent only a tiny fraction of today’s use of vacuum-based plasma. Part of the reason for this is the low power density that Dr. Siemen’s atmospheric pressure plasma was able to achieve and the faster processing rates and improved control vacuum-based plasma was able to provide. This talk will review and compare the various kinds of atmospheric pressure plasma sources and will illustrate the use of a high-power, stable, non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure plasma that operates with a gas temperature below 30C for low-cost processing of commodity materials, such as textiles, non-wovens and plastic films. A full-scale production machine that uses 72” electrodes and which operates at 10KW will be shown, along with the unique process this technology enables.