Power supply for low-temperature plasma sterilization

Abstract

Plasma plays an increasing role in medical, domestic environments and electric propulsion for space and other applications. As the fourth state of the matter, plasma has different modes with various working conditions. DC power source and AC power source can both generate plasma, however the corresponding characteristics manifest certain differences. Compared with DC power supply, AC mode working in the region of glow discharge can generate plasma more easily with low operating voltage. Using high frequency AC current-type to make low-temperature hydrogen peroxide gas plasma (LTP) sterilization can be low pollution and no damage for the equipment. In this paper, a 20kHz AC current-type power supply for plasma glow discharge topology is proposed; such a power supply, comparing with a radio frequency power supply, effectively reduces the complexity of the system and improves the reliability of the equipment. A 500W prototype for LTP sterilization has been included in this demonstration to verify the feasibility of the proposed solution.