Micro-gap DBD Plasma and Its Applications

The Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) is a nonequilibrium gas discharge that is generated in the space between two electrodes, which are separated by an insulating dielectric layer. The dielectric layer can be put on either of the two electrodes or be inserted in the space between two electrodes. If an AC or pulse high voltage is applied to the electrodes that is operated at applied frequency from 50Hz to several MHz and applied voltages from a few to a few tens of kilovolts rms, the breakdown can occur in working gas, resulting in large numbers of micro-discharges across the gap, the gas discharge is the so called DBD. Compared with most other means for nonequilibrium discharges, the main advantage of the DBD is that active species for chemical reaction can be produced at low temperature and atmospheric pressure without the vacuum set up, it also presents many unique physical and chemical process including light, heat, sound and electricity. This has led to a number of important applications such as ozone synthesizing, UV lamp house, CO2 lasers, et al. In recent years, due to its potential applications in plasma chemistry, semiconductor etching, pollution control, nanometer material and large area flat plasma display panels, DBD has received intensive attention from many researchers and is becoming a hot topic in the field of non-thermal plasma.