Non-planar radial-flow plasma treatment system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9711333-B2
Application number	US-201514704317-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 5, 2015
Priority date	May 5, 2015
Publication date	Jul 18, 2017
Grant date	Jul 18, 2017

Abstract

An atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system includes a plasma source including at least one electrode, a gas in a gas chamber, and an AC power supply that supplies power to the at least one electrode to form a plasma in the gas. A radial-flow surface has a jet nozzle through which the gas flows and the radial-flow surface has a surface profile that conforms to a nonplanar treatment surface of an object. The radial-flow surface is separated from the nonplanar treatment surface by a gap that is less than 2 times a diameter of the jet nozzle so that the gas flows radially outward from the nozzle and between the radial-flow surface and the nonplanar treatment surface.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system, comprising:
a plasma source including at least one electrode, a gas in a gas chamber, and an AC power supply that supplies power to the at least one electrode to form a plasma in the gas; and
a radial-flow surface having a jet nozzle through which the gas flows, the jet nozzle having a nozzle diameter, wherein the radial-flow surface has a surface profile that conforms to a nonplanar treatment surface of an object, the radial-flow surface separated from the nonplanar treatment surface by a gap that is less than two times the nozzle diameter so that the gas flows radially outward from the nozzle and between the radial-flow surface and the nonplanar treatment surface.

2. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein the radial-flow surface is an electrode.

3. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein the radial-flow surface is flexible and topographically compliant.

4. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein the AC power supply is a tunable power supply.

5. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 4 , wherein the tunable power supply operates between 1 kHz and 1 GHz.

6. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein the electrode is a first electrode and the plasma source further includes a second electrode.

7. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 6 , wherein either the first electrode or the second electrode is covered by a dielectric coating.

8. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein the gas includes one or more of helium, neon, argon, krypton, nitrogen, oxygen or a mixture thereof.

9. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein the object is an inkjet printhead.

10. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein the object is not rigid.

11. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein the object includes a web.

12. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein the nonplanar treatment surface includes a polymer.

13. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , further including a plurality of plasma sources, each plasma source having a radial-flow surface conforming to a different portion of the nonplanar treatment surface.

14. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein the gas includes plasma-generated gas species.

15. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 14 , wherein the confined radial flow of gas extends over only a portion of the nonplanar treatment surface.

16. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 14 , wherein the nonplanar treatment surface is electrically conductive or the radial-flow surface is electrically conductive.

17. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein the plasma source is a first plasma source, the radial-flow surface is a first radial-flow surface, the jet nozzle is a first nozzle, and the gas is a first gas; and
further including a second plasma source having a second radial-flow surface having a second jet nozzle through which a second gas passes.

18. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 17 , wherein the first plasma source is located to provide a first confined jet impingement to a first side of an object and the second plasma source is located to provide a second confined jet impingement to a second side of the object.

19. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 17 , wherein the first gas is a different gas than the second gas.

20. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein the plasma source includes three electrodes.

21. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein the radial flow is radially symmetric along at least a portion of the nonplanar treatment surface and the radial-flow surface.

22. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein the gap is substantially constant.

23. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein the radial-flow surface has a minimum radius of greater than five times the nozzle diameter of the jet nozzle.

24. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein the radial-flow surface has a minimum radius of greater than ten times the nozzle diameter of the jet nozzle.

25. The atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system of claim 1 , wherein gas flow exiting the jet nozzle has a Reynolds number of greater than 2700.

26. An atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment system, comprising:
a plasma source including at least one electrode, a gas in a gas chamber, and an AC power supply that supplies power to the at least one electrode to form a plasma in the gas; and
a radial-flow surface having a jet nozzle through which the gas flows, the jet nozzle having a nozzle diameter, wherein the radial-flow surface has a surface profile that conforms to a nonplanar treatment surface of an object, the radial-flow surface separated from the nonplanar treatment surface by a gap that is less than two times the nozzle diameter so that the gas flows radially outward from the nozzle and between the radial-flow surface and the nonplanar treatment surface;
wherein the plasma source includes a piezoelectric element and the AC power supply has a voltage amplitude that is less than or equal to 50 volts.

Assignees

• Eastman Kodak Co

Inventors

• Sieber Kurt D
• Cok Ronald Steven
• Kneezel Gary Alan

Classifications

• H05H1/46

  using applied electromagnetic fields, e.g. high frequency or microwave energy (H05H1/26 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H05H2001/2481

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01J37/32348

  Dielectric barrier discharge · CPC title

• H05H1/2406

  using dielectric barrier discharges, i.e. with a dielectric interposed between the electrodes · CPC title

• H05H2001/4652

  Electricity · mapped topic