A New Stripline-Based Atmospheric Pressure Microwave Plasma Sheet Source Designed for Surface Modification of Materials

Abstract

A new type of microwave plasma source is presented in which plasma at atmospheric pressure is generated inside a quartz rectangular flat box placed in a stripline supplied by a 2.45 GHz coaxial line. The plasma has a sheet shape and is designed for surface modification. Electric field and power flux distributions, tuning characteristics, and power characteristics (ratios of radiated, absorbed, and entering power) are numerically studied for three configurations: open, semi-closed, and closed. The calculations show that near-zero radiation reduction is possible only for the closed configuration, while the ratio of radiated power to entering power is always greater than 30% for the other configurations. The moving plunger is not sufficient for the ratio of reflected to incident power to fall below 20% for both the closed and open configurations. This is possible for the semi-closed configuration, but then the radiated power is the highest. The experiment shows that for the same entering power, the plasma volume is largest for the closed configuration and smallest for the open configuration, which we attribute to the difference in radiated power. The plasma generated using the closed stripline configuration has a larger volume than plasma generated using the rectangular waveguide.