A SF₆RF plasma reactor for research on textile treatment

Abstract

This research concerns the development of a SF 6 RF discharge at low pressure in a small reactor for industrial applications. The plasma is produced in the pressure range 0.05-1 mbar by a RF supply. The pumping system sustains a flowrate of about 50 cm s −1 , with residence time in the discharge of about 0.2 s at a pressure of 0.1 mbar. The discharge parameters were measured at a low operation power. Measurements were performed by means of movable electrostatic probes and a photodiode. Particular care in the analysis of the data proved to be necessary due to the presence of a substantial amount of negative ions. The reactor has been employed for textile treatment in order to modify the surface properties of the fibres. Favourable operating conditions leading to an improved hydrophobicity of the textiles were achieved.

Modes of rf capacitive discharge in low-pressure sulfur hexafluoride

“…Sulfur hexafluoride (SF 6 ) is a man-made gas which is used by the electric power industry, in semiconductor processing, as a blanket gas for magnesium refining, as a reactive gas in aluminium recycling to reduce porosity, for thermal and sound insulation, and in voice communication, leak checking, atmospheric trace gas studies, ball inflation, etc [1].…”

“…Rf capacitive discharge in SF 6 is widely applied in technological processes of etching silicon-based materials [2,3], GaAs [4], treatment of polyethylene films [5] and textile [6], cleaning walls of technological vessels from etching or deposition products [7], etc. Therefore a large number of papers are devoted to studying rf discharge in SF 6 both in experiment and in theory.…”

“…Therefore a large number of papers are devoted to studying rf discharge in SF 6 both in experiment and in theory. Let us make a brief review of the main results obtained by other authors, which are directly related to the results of our paper.…”

“…Kakuta et al [8] experimentally investigated electrical characteristics of rf discharges in SF 6 and in its mixtures with N 2 . Space-and time-resolved emission spectroscopy was used to gain a better understanding of kinetics of processes leading to various observed characteristics.…”

“…The discharge appeared more resistive. Nakano et al [9] numerically predicted the radical transport to the surface of narrow-gap reactive ion etcher in SF 6 and investigated the spatiotemporal structure of discharge. The functionality of the narrow-gap rf discharge in SF 6 is due to the appearance of a double layer in front of the instantaneous anode.…”