Miniaturized Plasma Systems

If you have a specific question or application for cold atmospheric and low-pressure plasmas in mind, then we, the team from the research field "Miniaturized Plasma Systems", are the right partner for you.

The research field focuses on the miniaturization of plasma sources and sensors for the investigation of low-pressure plasmas. Among other things, a special MEMS-based sensor has been developed which can measure the ion energy and ion angle distribution function on the surface of a silicon substrate. The sensor's main application is the optimization of plasma processes in microelectronics production, but it can be used to investigate any plasma process.

In the field of plasma sources, we are able to scale atmospheric pressure plasmas down to a dimension of 20 µm. These sources are mainly used in the field of optical spectroscopy. Additionally we can realize the connection to an optical waveguide for integrated photonics. Finally, we equip the plasma sources with appropriate extraction and focusing optics so that they can be used as ion guns for highly localized surface processing.

Research Topics

• MEMS-based sensors for measuring the ion energy and ion angle distribution functions (IEDF, IADF)
• Atmospheric pressure plasma sources for optical spectroscopy
• Miniaturized ion thrusters for surface technology on the nanometer scale