Surface Treatment of Glass by Microplasma

Microplasma technology was used in many applications from biomedical to surface treatment of polymers. A new application could be the surface treatment of glass panels for the electronic industry in order to improve the surface wettability. The remote microplasma method is proposed for the surface treatment of glass. It can be easily applied as an industrial process due to the relatively low discharge voltage around 1 kV and small size of the reactor. This paper presents the surface treatment of glass by microplasma using Ar and mixtures of Ar with N₂ and O₂. A microplasma process was analyzed by the emission spectroscopy method. A Marx generator with MOSFET switches, a neon transformer, and a pulsed power supply were used to energize the electrodes. The emission spectrum was measured by an intensified charge-coupled device camera and a spectrometer. An optic fiber was used to have an accurate measurement of a small part of the microplasma discharge. Surface wettability of glass was confirmed, measuring the contact angle before and after the microplasma treatment. The surface of glass was modified due to the action of the radicals and active species generated by microplasma. The emission spectrum of the microplasma discharge in Ar and mixtures of Ar with and showed ArI peaks, OH peaks, second positive band system peaks, and first positive band system peaks.