AVS 52nd International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Wednesday Sessions
       Session PS-WeA

Paper PS-WeA4
Ultra Fast Surface Modification Processes Employing Compact Non-Equilibrium Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas

Wednesday, November 2, 2005, 3:00 pm, Room 302

Session: Atmospheric Plasmas and Microdischarges
Presenter: N. Yoshida, Fuji, Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd., Japan
Authors: N. Yoshida, Fuji, Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd., Japan
H. Kano, NU-EcoEngineering, Japan
S. Den, Katagiri Engineering Co., Ltd, Japan
M. Hori, Nagoya Univ., Japan
Correspondent: Click to Email
In the atmospheric pressure plasma processing, the vacuum facilities are basically not needed and the plasma chemistry with considerably large amount of radicals can be utilized. Consequently, the high-speed material processes such as etching, deposition and surface treatment will be potentially realized employing atmospheric pressure plasmas and the equipment cost can be drastically reduced compared with other plasmas. Up to now, many generation technologies of atmospheric pressure plasma have been proposed. We have developed the compact non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure plasma employing new type of micro-hollow cathodes. This device was constituted of the electrode with double micro-hollow structures, which is a very compact size of several ten micrometers and very light weight. Furthermore, it enables to generate the stable plasma in the atmospheric pressure condition. In this study, this plasma was generated with supplying voltage to two special hollow cathode electrodes, and throwing the argon gas of 500ml per minute into the both electrodes. The atmospheric pressure plasma generation can be realized not only in argon but also in air. When this plasma was irradiated on the glass surface for a short time, the considerable change was observed on the surface of the glass. XPS analysis indicated that the C-O bond on the glass surface was drastically decreased while a new peak of O=C-O bond appeared during the plasma irradiation. After only 0.08 seconds irradiation, the contact angle of 20 degree was obtained and after 0.4 seconds, that of 8 degree was easily realized. Therefore, the high hydrophilic processing was successfully achieved in a very short time by using this plasma. From these results, the compact non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure plasma developed in this study will be very promising for a lot of applications to various kinds of surface treatment fields.