• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.498-498
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• 2013

Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas have pioneered a new field of plasma for biomedical application bridging plasma physics and biology. Biological and medical applications of plasmas have attracted considerable attention due to promising applications in medicine such as electro-surgery, dentistry, skin care and sterilization of heat-sensitive medical instruments [1]. Traditional approaches using electronic devices have limits in heating, high voltage shock, and high current shock for patients. It is a great demand for plasma medical industrial acceptance that the plasma generation device should be compact, inexpensive, and safe for patients. Microwave-excited micro-plasma has the highest feasibility compared with other types of plasma sources since it has the advantages of low power, low voltage, safety from high-voltage shock, electromagnetic compatibility, and long lifetime due to the low energy of striking ions [2]. Recent experiment [2] shows three-log reduction within 180-s treatment of S. mutans with a low-power palm-size microwave power module for biomedical application. Experiments using microwave plasma are discussed. This low-power palm-size microwave power module board includes a power amplifier (PA) chip, a phase locked loop (PLL) chip, and an impedance matching network. As it has been a success, more compact-size module is needed for the portability of microwave devices and for the various medical applications of microwave plasma source. For the plasma generator, a 1.35-GHz coaxial transmission line resonator (CTLR) [3] is used. The way of reducing the size and enhancing the performances of the module is examined.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.268-268
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• 2012

Atmospheric pressure microwave induced plasmas are used to excite and ionize chemical species for elemental analysis, for plasma reforming, and for plasma surface treatment. Microwave plasma differs significantly from other plasmas and has several interesting properties. For example, the electron density is higher in microwave plasma than in radio-frequency (RF) or direct current (DC) plasma. Several types of radical species with high density are generated under high electron density, so the reactivity of microwave plasma is expected to be very high [1]. Therefore, useful applications of atmospheric pressure microwave plasmas are expected. The surface characteristics of SUS304 stainless steel are investigated before and after surface modification by microwave plasma under atmospheric pressure conditions. The plasma device was operated by power sources with microwave frequency. We used a device based on a coaxial transmission line resonator (CTLR). The atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) in the case of microwave frequency (880 MHz) used Ar as plasma gas [2]. Typical microwave Pw was 3-10 W. To determine the optimal processing conditions, the surface treatment experiments were performed using various values of Pw (3-10 W), treatment time (5-120 s), and ratios of mixture gas (hydrogen peroxide). Torch-to-sample distance was fixed at the plasma edge point. Plasma treatment of a stainless steel plate significantly affected the wettability, contact angle (CA), and free energy (mJ/$m^2$) of the SUS304 surface. CA and ${\gamma}$ were analyzed. The optimal surface modification parameters to modify were a power of 10 W, a treatment time of 45 s, and a hydrogen peroxide content of 0.6 wt% [3]. Under these processing conditions, a CA of just $9.8^{\circ}$ was obtained. As CA decreased, wettability increased; i.e. the surface changed from hydrophobic to hydrophilic. From these results, 10 W power and 45 s treatment time are the best values to minimize CA and maximize ${\gamma}$.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.465-468
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• 2009

The dispersion relation and the characteristic of propagation are measured. The measurements of the dispersion relation are observed by a plunger method employed in slow plasma density by pumping microwaves on the axis are observed in plasma loaded slow wave structure. In case of small incident microwave powers the well known plasma density cavity are observed. At the axial positions of minimal radius in the waveguides, the maxima og the electron density, the plasma potential and the RF electric field are observed in cases of high-power microwaves.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.121.1-121.1
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• 2014

Recently, much attention has been given to plasma production under liquid and its applications [1]. However, most of plasma production techniques reported so far utilize high voltage dc, ac, rf or microwave power [2], where damage to discharge electrodes and small discharge volume are remained issues. As an alternative of plasma production method under liquid, we have proposed pulsed microwave excited plasma using slot antenna, where damage to the slot electrode can be minimized and plasma volume can be increased. We have also reported improvement of treatment efficiency with use of reduced-pressure condition during the discharge [3]. To realize low pressure conditions in liquid, various alternative technique can be considered. One possible technique is simultaneous injection of microwave power and ultrasonic wave. Ultrasonic wave induces pressure fluctuation with the wave propagation and is so far used for cavitation production in the water. We propose utilization of reduced pressure induced by ultrasonic cavitation for improvement of the plasma production. Correlation between the plasma production and the ultrasonic power will be discussed.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.48 no.8
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• pp.591-597
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• 1999

The propagation characteristics of high power microwave pulse in an air-breakdown environment are examined. The maximum electron density produced by microwave air-breakdown is limited to $10^6cm^{-3}$ by the tail-erosion effect. Inorder to increase the electron density, the scheme using two pulses intersecting at a desired height is considered. Increasing the carrier frequency, it is shown that microwave pulse can be transferred without the serious erosion in the numerical simulation. This result is useful for the above scheme. Also, an experiment is conducted to show the tail-erosion effect and confirm that a rapidly generated lossy plasma can cause spectral breaking and frequency shift of a high-power microwave pulse. The experimental results are presented by comparing the frequency spectrum of an incident pulse with that of the pulse transmitted through a self-induced air-breakdown environment. The experimental results show that the amount of frequency upshift is co-related with the ionization rate, whereas that of frequency downshift is correlated with the energy losses from the pulse in the self-generated plasma.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.10-15
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• 2005

Effects of CH₄/H₂ flow rate ratio, chuck bias and microwave power on the structural properties and particle densities of diamond thin films deposited on Ti substrates in microwave plasma CVD were examined. High quality diamond thin films were deposited on Ti substrates in 2∼3 CH₄ Vol.% conditions due to the preferential formation of sp³-bonus ana selective removal of sp²-bonus in the CH₄/H₂ mixtures, and the mechanism for the formation of diamond particles on Ti was analysed. Diamond particle density increased with increasing negative chuck bias to Ti substrate due to bias-enhanced nucleation of diamond and the threshold voltage was found at ∼-50 V. With increasing microwave power the evolution from micro-crystalline graphite layer to diamond layer was observed.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.408-418
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• 2008

The rectangular resonant cavity was designed and characterized as a microwave plasma source for focused ion beam. The optimum cavity was calculated analytically and analyzed in detail by using HFSS(High Frequency Structure Simulator). Since the resonant cavity can be affected by the permittivity of quartz chamber and plasma, the cavity is designed to be changeable in one direction. By observing the microwave input power at which the breakdown begins, the optimum cavity length for breakdown is measured and compared with the calculated one, showing in good agreement with the optimum length reduced by 10cm according to the permittivity change in the presence of quartz chamber. The shape of breakdown power curve as a function of pressure appears to be similar to Paschen-curve. After breakdown, plasma densities increase with microwave power and the reduced effective permittivity in the cavity with plasma results in larger optimum length. However, it is not possible to optimize the cavity condition for high density plasmas with increased input power, because too high input power causes expansion of density cutoff region where microwave cannot penetrate. For more accurate microwave cavity design to generate high density plasma, plasma column inside and outside the density cutoff region needs to be treated as a conductor or dielectric.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.94-94
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• 2010

As a new plasma source for the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PCVD) of ${\mu}c$-Si deposition, we have demonstrated a microwave-excited plasma source, which can produce high density (${\sim}10^{12}\;cm^{-3}$) plasma with low electron temperature (~1 eV) and low plasma potential (~10 V). In this plasma source, microwave power radiated from slot antenna is distributed along the plasma-dielectric interface in large area and this enables us to produce uniform high-density plasma in large area. To optimize deposition conditions, deep understanding of gas phase chemistry is indispensable. In this presentation, we will discuss on the gas phase diagnostics of microwave $SiH_4/H_2$ plasma such as $SiH_4$ dissociation or $SiH_3$ radical profile as well as deposited film properties.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.34-41
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• 2017

A 2.45 GHz microwave plasma with linear antenna has been prepared for hydrophobic and wear-resistible surface coating of carbon steel. Wear-resistible properties are required for the surface protection of cutting tools and achieved by depositing a hydrogenated amorphous carbon film on steel surface through linear microwave plasma source that has $TE_{10}-TEM$ waveguide. Compared to the existing RF plasma source driven by 13.56 MHz, linear microwave plasma source can easily generate high density plasma and provide faster deposition rate and wider process windows. In this study, $Ar/CH_4$ gas mixtures are used for hydrogenated amorphous carbon film deposition. When microwave power of 1000 W is applied, 40 cm long uniform $Ar/CH_4$ plasma could be obtained in gas pressure of 200~400 mTorr. The Vickers hardness measurement of hydrogenated amorphous carbon film on steel surface was evaluated. It was found the optimized deposition condition at $Ar:CH_4=25:25$ sccm, 300 mTorr with microwave power of 1000W and RF bias power of 100W. By deposition of hydrogenated amorphous carbon film, contact angle on steel surfaces increases from $43.9^{\circ}$ to $93.2^{\circ}$.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.567-572
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• 2015

Discharge characteristics of linear microwave plasma were investigated by using fluid simulation of 2D axis-symmetry based on finite elements method. The microwave power was 2.45 GHz TEM mode and transmitted through linear antenna. Resistive power and pressure were considered simulation variables and argon was used for working gas. A decrease of electron density along the quartz tube was observed in low power condition but relatively uniform plasmas were generated in chamber by increasing the resistive power. The electron temperature was highly detected near the surface of quartz tube because the electron was heated only dielectric surface. The power transmission efficiency decreased and characteristics of surface plasma were observed in high electron density condition.