Miniaturization of inductively coupled plasma sources

Sample Analysis with Miniaturized Plasmas

“…[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] Whereas large ICPs are typically operated at a frequency of 13.56 MHz, it has been shown that the optimum frequency for plasma generation increases to 460 MHz when the coil diameter is reduced to 5 mm. 17 It was found that the electron density increases with the frequency and is about an order of magnitude higher than in a large scale ICP as a result of the large surface-to-volume ratio of small discharges. The motivation for the work was to develop portable mICPs that can be coupled to a microfabricated Fabry-Perot interferometer for measurement of gaseous analytes in the field, for example, SO 2 .…”

“…These proof-of-concept devices were developed on printed circuit boards to study the effect of scaling laws on mICPs. 17 Such studies formed the foundation for further developments. For instance, for the next two generations, photolithography and micromachining technology were used for the fabrication of mICPs that had planar load coils, as shown in Fig.…”

Current status of microplasma research

“…It is equipped with a thin tungsten wire coaxially in a quartz tube, which makes the ignition easier and assists the discharge maintenance with the (450 MHz) source [16] thermionic electron emission. Microwaves are also used for the generation of microplasmas, where a coaxial line or a micro-strip line is used for the microwave power transmission [17,18]. An example is shown by Hopwood et al, in which a ring resonator strip line is used to match the impedance with the plasma load produced at a slit in the ring [19].…”

Study of Sterilization and Disinfection in Room Air by Using Atmospheric Microplasma

“…There are various types of microplasma. A classification could be established considering the generation method [25]: DC and hollow cathode discharge [26], dielectric barrier discharge [27], coronas [28], RF capacitively coupled [29], RF inductively coupled [30] and microwave microplasma [31]. The discharge gap is set to an order of micrometers which is extremely narrow, enabling the plasma to generate at a discharge voltage of around 600 V. Streamers between the electrodes have also small diameters (in the order of micrometers), resulting in a relatively compact and dense plasma.…”