Comparison of laboratory and industrial scale atmospheric pressure plasma processing systems using real-time non-invasive performance analysis tools

摘要

Real-time non-invasive tools have been developed for the monitoring and comparison of laboratory and industrial scale atmospheric pressure plasma processing systems. These systems have been compared using principle component analysis of the time based variation in both the electrical and electro-acoustic signals. It was found that the voltage, current, electro-acoustic intensity and frequency of the plasma systems changed systematically with an increase in applied plasma power and addition of oxygen into a helium plasma. Using these diagnostic tools both plasma stability and run to run variations can be assessed. The plasma drive frequency is pulled from approximately 26 to 16 kHz on the laboratory system and from approximately 36 to 32 kHz on the industrial system, for an increase in applied plasma power and addition of oxygen. The overall optical emission intensity of both plasma systems was observed to increase with applied power and to decrease with the addition of oxygen into the helium discharge.