The Resistive Barrier Discharge: A Brief Review of the Device and Its Biomedical Applications

Mounir Laroussi

doi:10.3390/plasma4010004

Abstract

This paper reviews the principles behind the design and operation of the resistive barrier discharge, a low temperature plasma source that operates at atmospheric pressure. One of the advantages of this plasma source is that it can be operated using either DC or AC high voltages. Plasma generated by the resistive barrier discharge has been used to efficiently inactivate pathogenic microorganisms and to destroy cancer cells. These biomedical applications of low temperature plasma are of great interest because in recent times bacteria developed increased resistance to antibiotics and because present cancer therapies often are accompanied by serious side effects. Low temperature plasma, such the one generated by the resistive barrier discharge, is a technology that can help overcome these healthcare challenges.

Highlights

One of the most widely used approaches to generate low temperature atmospheric pressure plasmas is the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD)
The dielectric barrier discharge original concept, which was first developed by Du Moncel in 1855 [1], was further developed, improved, and its physics elucidated by several investigators [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17]
Atmospheric pressure plasmas generated by DBDs have been extensively used in material processing, surface modification, as UV-VUV sources, as flow control actuators, the generation of ozone [18,19,20], and since the mid-1990s in biomedical applications [21]

Summary

Introduction

One of the most widely used approaches to generate low temperature atmospheric pressure plasmas is the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD). One of the DBD limitations is that it needed to be operated with frequencies ranging from the kHz to the MHz. One of the DBD limitations is that it needed to be operated with frequencies ranging from the kHz to the MHz This required special high voltage power supplies at those frequencies, which added to the complexity of operating a DBD-based system. This shortcoming was overcome by replacing the dielectric barrier covering the electrodes by a high resistivity layer. This paper first discusses the basic principles of operation of such resistively stabilized discharge and a brief overview of its use in biomedical applications is presented

Mechanism of Operation of the Resistive Barrier Discharge

Current

Biomedical Applications of the RBD

Conclusions