LOW-PRESSURE PLASMA SYSTEMS

Gas plasma treatment is a proven standard for controlled substrate surface cleaning, adhesion promotion and thin film coatings. It enables higher throughput, greater consistency, and cost reductions compared to manual operations. Plasma eliminates wet chemistry operations and primers, and is embraced by industry as an environmentally-clean technology.

In general, low pressure plasma is used in the most diverse ranges, where a better adhesion between materials or a change in surface property is desired. Low pressure plasma offers many versatile possibilities for surface modification:

- Plasma cleaning: cleaning surfaces of any residues, oils, or contamination
- Plasma activation: activation of various materials before gluing, painting, etc.
- Plasma etching: etching and partial removal of surfaces
- Plasma coating: coating of parts with several possible types of layers

Plasma cleaning involves the removal of impurities and contaminants from surfaces by using energetic plasma or Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma created from gaseous species. Gases such as argon and oxygen, as well as mixtures such as air and hydrogen/nitrogen are used. The plasma is created by using high frequency voltages to ionise the low pressure gas (typically around 1/1000 atmospheric pressure), although atmospheric pressure plasmas are now also common.