Atmospheric pressure plasma processing with microstructure electrodes and microplanar reactors

Atmospheric pressure plasmas can be generated, if the distance between the plasma generating electrodes is in the range of 100 μm, and radio-frequencies of 13.56 or 27.12 MHz are applied. Such small dimensioned plasmas are only of interest for industrial plasma applications if larger areas can be processed. It will be shown that both with microstructure electrodes as with microplanar-reactor, plasma processing can be carried out for typical substrate dimensions of 100 mm and more using helium or neon for plasma generation. First experiments of plasma surface treatment of polymers and of thin film deposition on silicon will be presented. With mixtures of some percentage C2H2 in atmospheric pressure helium, diamond-like carbon films with deposition rates between 1–10 μm/min can be deposited.