Industrial applications of pulsed wire discharge

Abstract

Pulsed wire discharge (PWD) has potential applications in material synthesis and processing. We are developing PWD for material applications in two directions, 1) applying high-speed gas puff on PWD and 2) depositing metal thin films by PWD. In this paper, we have developed a high-speed gas puff device that is capable of generating instantaneous ambient gas pressure of 400 Torr around the wire with rising and falling time on the order of milliseconds. The effect of breakdown prevention by the gas puff is observed in nitrogen gas. Copper thin films were obtained by PWD in vacuum. Uniform films were obtained only when fast capacitor bank was used.