Power supplies for DBD used for surface treatments

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the functionality of different types of power supplies producing laboratory controlled electrical discharges using pulsed power supplies for DBD discharge. The analysis includes measured electrical parameters and simulated electrical parameters using PROTEUS ISIS software. Also in this paper DBD types of plasma discharges will be simulated with two different power supplies in order to approximate functionality. Laboratory electrical discharges that produce non-thermal plasma are used more and more for microbiological decontamination, surface treatment and depollution by the means of decomposing some complex molecules or in the field of modern medicine. Each application requires a power supply particularly adapted to each type of the plasma reactor. If the first applications of these discharges were designed mostly for reactor types with high volume discharge capabilities, and the power supplies were simple and robust generating high power using industrial frequencies, in time the reactors decreased significantly in size and the power supplies used were working on higher frequencies. This trend was adopted on one hand out of the need for energy optimization of the power supplies used, and on the other hand to get a better homogeneity of the treatment. This paper aims to provide a comparison for pulsed power supplies working at different frequencies, with respect to the electrical parameters, from the point of view of power supplies themselves for DBD discharges. In order to optimize the non-thermal plasma treatment for different applications, the parameters of the electric discharges producing the plasma must be considered. Consequently, it is necessary to carry out a simulation starting from an equivalent electric schematic with parameters as close as possible to those of the discharge. This discharge is produced in non-thermal plasma DBD reactors. The analysis is done on simulated electrical parameters using PROTEUS ISIS software in order to assess the parameters in functionality of the power supplies.