Surface potential control in plasma processing of materials
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method or plasma processing an object, comprising the steps of:
- providing a three-dimensional, irregularly shaped object having a contoured surface;
placing an electrically conducting grid over the contoured surface of the object, the grid generally following the three-dimensional contours of the surface but being displaced outwardly from the surface; and
plasma processing the surface of the object with charge carriers produced in a plasma, the step of plasma processing including the steps ofgenerating a plasma of charge carriers around and adjacent to the contoured surface of the object, andindependently of generating the plasma, applying a plurality of pulses of an electrical accelerating voltage to the grid, the voltage being opposite in polarity to the charge carriers of the plasma.
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Abstract
An object (30) is plasma processed by placing an electrically conducting grid (34) over all or a portion of the surface (32) of the object (30) so that the grid (34) generally follows the contours of the surface (32) but is displaced outwardly from the surface (32). Ions or electrons from a plasma surrounding the object (30) are accelerated into the surface (32) of the object (30) using as a processing driving force an electrical potential applied to the electrically conducting grid (34). The use of a contoured conducting grid (34) allows plasma processing of large, electrically nonconducting objects and objects having sharp surface features or recesses.
67 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method or plasma processing an object, comprising the steps of:
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providing a three-dimensional, irregularly shaped object having a contoured surface; placing an electrically conducting grid over the contoured surface of the object, the grid generally following the three-dimensional contours of the surface but being displaced outwardly from the surface; and plasma processing the surface of the object with charge carriers produced in a plasma, the step of plasma processing including the steps of generating a plasma of charge carriers around and adjacent to the contoured surface of the object, and independently of generating the plasma, applying a plurality of pulses of an electrical accelerating voltage to the grid, the voltage being opposite in polarity to the charge carriers of the plasma. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method for plasma processing an object, comprising the steps of:
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providing an electrically nonconducting, three-dimensional object having a contoured exposed surface; placing an electrically conducting grid over the contoured exposed surface of the object, the grid generally following the three-dimensional contours of the exposed surface but being displaced outwardly from the exposed surface to form a constant-potential volume adjacent to the entire exposed surface; and plasma processing the exposed surface of the object with charge carriers produced in a plasma, the step of plasma processing including the steps of generating a plasma around and adjacent to the exposed surface of the object, and independently of generating the plasma, applying a plurality of pulses of an electrical accelerating voltage to the grid.
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22. A method for plasma processing an object, comprising the steps of:
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providing an object having an exposed surface; creating an equipotential surface adjacent to the exposed surface of the object but displaced outwardly from the exposed surface; and plasma processing the exposed surface of the object with charge carriers produced in a plasma, the step of plasma processing including the steps of generating a plasma of charge carriers around the exposed surface of the object, and independently of generating the plasma, applying a plurality of pulses of an electrical accelerating voltage between the equipotential surface and the plasma. - View Dependent Claims (23)
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Specification