A simple and flexible atmospheric microplasma generation device with patternable microfluidic channels

This paper reports a simple-arranged and flexible microplasma generation device μPGD) which is mainly composed of a copper-polyimide-copper sandwich structure with predefined microfluidic channels and a sealed membrane to control the working gas. Uniform microplasmas of diverse patterns with controlled gas discharge on both flat and curved surfaces are successfully generated in the air atmosphere. The results of thermal and optical characteristics show that this device has low working temperature (around 40 oC) and high chemical reactivity. The μPGD is utilized to maskless etch and deposit various micropatterns with micron spatial resolution. Different micropatterns of photoresist film on both flat glass wafer and curved silicone tube are successfully fabricated by μPGD etching with He/O2 as working gas. Fluorocarbon film with dot arrays is also deposited on curved silicone tube by μPGD with the working gas of He/C3H8. By predefining the geometry of the microplasma array, different micropatterns can be fabricated with good pattern transfer fidelity. Results show that this device is flexible and is able to achieve maskless microfabrication on arbitrary surfaces with controlled gas discharge for various substrate materials, especially biological and heat-sensitive materials.