Dynamics of the atmospheric pressure diffuse dielectric barrier discharge between cylindrical electrodes in roll-to-roll PECVD reactor^*

¹ Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research (DIFFER), P.O. Box 1207, 3430, BE Nieuwegein, The Netherlands
² Plasma and Materials Processing Group, Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600, MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
³ FUJIFILM Manufacturing Europe B.V., P.O. Box 90156, 5000 LJ Tilburg, The Netherlands

^a e-mail: s.a.starostin@differ.nl

Received: 16 January 2015
Accepted: 26 February 2015
Published online: 15 July 2015

Abstract

The high current diffuse dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) was operated in a bi-axial cylindrical electrode configuration using nitrogen, oxygen and argon gas flow with the addition of tetraethyl orthosilicate as precursor for silica-like film deposition. The behaviour of the transient plasma was visualized by means of fast imaging from two orthogonal directions. The formation and propagation (~3 × 10⁴ m s⁻¹) of lateral ionization waves with the transverse light emission structure similar to the low pressure glow discharge was observed at time scales below 1 µs. Despite plasma non-uniformity at nanosecond time scale the deposition process on the web-rolled polymer results in smooth well adherent films with good film uniformity and excellent gas diffusion barrier properties.