AVS 61st International Symposium & Exhibition
    Advanced Surface Engineering Monday Sessions
       Session SE+EM+EN+PS+TF-MoM

Paper SE+EM+EN+PS+TF-MoM5
Atmospheric Pressure High Power Impulse Plasma Source (AP-HiPIPS) for Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition of Thin Films

Monday, November 10, 2014, 9:40 am, Room 302

Session: New Developments in Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Deposition and Thin Films for Energy Applications
Presenter: Vasiliki Poenitzsch, Southwest Research Institute
Authors: V.Z. Poenitzsch, Southwest Research Institute
R. Wei, Southwest Research Institute
M.A. Miller, Southwest Research Institute
K. Coulter, Southwest Research Institute
Correspondent: Click to Email
Southwest Research Institute is currently developing a High Power Impulse Plasma Source (HiPIPS) that supplies a high flux of energetic reactants to a surface while maintaining a low processing temperature. HiPIPS is a new plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technology that combines variable pressure plasma jets with advanced pulsed power technology. Several complementary techniques, including mass spectroscopy, optical emission spectroscopy (OES) and electrical and thermal probes were employed, for measuring and calculating the plasma characteristics in a wide range of the HiPIPS process parameters and conditions. The preliminary HiPIPS experiments have revealed that high peak power (~40 kW) in the pulses can be achieved resulting in a high peak current (~200 A) and increased plasma density (i.e. n = Ar: 1020 cm-2s-1) while maintaining a low average power (35W) and a low substrate processing temperature (50-150 °C). A prototype atmospheric-pressure HiPIPS (AP-HiPIPS) was successfully developed and proof-of-concept AP-HiPIPS diamond-like carbon (DLC) film deposition was demonstrated. Beyond DLC films, HiPIPS plasmas could be applicable to deposition of many classes of films and many types of surface treatments. In contrast to conventional state-of-the-art non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma jets, typically driven by RF or AC, the power densities and currents during pulse on-time are 2-3 orders of magnitude higher in HiPIPS. Since plasma is created through inelastic electron collision with precursor gas molecules, the increased power and current directly equates to significantly improved ionization and dissociation of precursor gases in HiPIPS. Thus, distinguishing features of HiPIPS as compared to RF or AC APPJs are increased ionization, enhanced molecular gas dissociation, and higher flux of reactive species while maintaining the same low deposition temperatures. In this presentation, an overview of HiPIPS and AP-HiPIPS will be given with a specific focus on plasma characteristics and areas for further development.