A plasma source (100), comprises an outer face (10) with an aperture (14) for delivering a plasma from the aperture. A transport mechanism is configured to transport a substrate (11) and the plasma source relative to each other parallel to the outer face, with a substrate surface to be processed in parallel with at least a part of the outer face that contains the aperture. First (4-1) and second tile (4-2) are arranged within a first plane of a working electrode (22) with neighbouring edges (12) bordering a first plasma collection space (6-1) and a third tile (4-3) is arranged in a second plane of the working electrode parallel to the first plane such that the third tile overlaps neighbouring edges in the first plane. At least one of the working and counter electrodes comprises a local modification (13,15) near said neighbouring edges to increase a plasma delivery to the aperture compensating for loss of plasma collection due to the neighbouring edges.

A plasma generating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: a pair of electrodes arranged in a dielectric discharge tube; an initial discharge induction coil module; and a main discharge induction coil module. The initial discharge induction coil module and the main discharge induction coil module are connected to an RF power source, and the RF power source provides RF power having different resonance frequencies to the initial discharge induction coil module and the main discharge induction coil module, respectively.

A method for etching a bevel edge of a substrate. The method includes providing a substrate with a bevel edge after a thin film has been deposited on a top surface of the substrate and rotating the substrate about its center axis. The method also includes, during the rotating, etching the bevel edge by directing flow of atmospheric plasma onto the bevel edge. The flow is parallel to the top surface of the substrate, such as orthogonal to a plane containing a region of the bevel edge being etched by the atmospheric plasma, which may be O.sub.2 atmospheric plasma. The etching is performed without loss of thickness of the thin film on the top surface at a radius spaced apart from an outer radius of the substrate. The substrate may be a silicon (Si) wafer, and the thin film may be a carbon film, amorphous carbon, SiC, SiO, or SiN.

A method for forming films on particles of powder includes diffusing the powder by leading the powder into a jet nozzle and ejecting a jet flow of the powder; leading the diffused particles of powder, a raw material gas, and a reaction gas activated by atmospheric pressure plasma, into a reaction container, and forming a swirl flow in the container; and forming the films on the diffused particles of powder by reaction of a raw material gas and an activated reaction gas in the container. An apparatus is also disclosed having a reaction container with a peripheral wall having a round section in plan view and a jet nozzle for a powder source, raw material gas, and atmospheric pressure plasma sources are coupled to and enter the container at an angle with a radius thereof thereby forming a swirl flow to form a film on the powder.

Methods and apparatus leverage dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma to treat samples for surface modification prior to photomask application and for photomask cleaning. In some embodiments, a method of treating a surface with AP plasma includes igniting plasma over an ignition plate where the AP plasma is formed by one or more plasma heads of an AP plasma reactor positioned above the ignition plate, monitoring characteristics of the AP plasma with an optical emission spectrometer (OES) sensor to determine if stable AP plasma is obtained and, if so, moving the AP reactor over a central opening of an assistant plate where the central opening contains a sample under treatment and where the assistant plate reduces AP plasma arcing on the sample during treatment. The AP reactor scans back and forth over the central opening of the assistant plate while maintaining stabilized AP plasma to treat the sample.

A plasma CVD device which comprises a substrate having a three-dimensional shape such as that of a bottle and which can form a coating on the surface of various substrates under atmospheric pressure, and a coating forming method are provided. This atmospheric pressure remote plasma CVD device is provided with a dielectric chamber which has a gas inlet, an inner space and a plasma outlet, and a plasma generation device which generates plasma in the inner space. The plasma outlet is provided with a nozzle that has an opening area smaller than the average cross-sectional area of the cross-sections perpendicular to the direction of gas flow in the inner space.

A polymer substrate having deposited on its surface a reaction product of a precursor material obtained or obtainable by a method for preparation of polymer, and to the use of the polymer having improved antibacterial properties and/or antiviral properties or of the polymer having improved antibacterial properties and/or antiviral properties obtained or obtainable by the method for medical applications, antibiofouling applications, hygiene applications, food industry applications, industrial or computer related applications, consumer goods applications and appliances, public and public transport applications, underwater, water sanitation or seawater applications.

A plasma generator includes an outer electrode that encloses a first inner electrode and a second inner electrode. The first inner electrode includes a plurality of protrusions that extend towards the outer electrode. A voltage signal can be applied across the outer electrode and the first inner electrode to excite gas injected into gaps between the protrusions and the outer electrode. Plasma is generated surrounding the protrusions. The second inner electrode is at a downstream location of the excited gas relative to the first inner electrode. The second inner electrode forms a second gap with the outer electrode. A voltage signal can be applied across the second inner electrode and the outer electrode, further exciting the gas to generate second plasma at the second gap. The second plasma is spread evenly across the second inner electrode and the outer electrode.

An atmospheric pressure plasma system includes an atmospheric pressure plasma source that generates a glow discharge-type plasma. The atmospheric pressure plasma source comprises a plasma head and a gas sensor system. The plasma head includes a gas inlet, a gas passage surrounded by a dielectric liner, a radio frequency (RF) electrode and a ground electrode. The RF electrode and the ground electrode are arranged at opposite sides of an outer surface of a segment of the gas passage. The gas sensor system comprises a first pellistor that is exposed to a process gas entering the gas inlet and provides real-time monitoring of the presence and concentration of helium in the process gas entering the gas inlet during plasma operation.

Disclosed is a method of treating a substrate by using a substrate treating apparatus generating plasma in a treatment space by applying microwaves, the method including: a plasma treatment operation of treating a substrate with the plasma; a replacement operation in which the plasma treatment operation is performed a preset number of times and a component included in the substrate treating apparatus is replaced; and a backup operation of backing up the substrate treating apparatus after the replacement operation, in which the backup operation includes a bake purge operation for removing byproducts present in the component.