Arrays of Coplanar Eletrode Microplasma Devices

We introduce a novel microplasma device with coplanar electrodes (Coplanar Eletrode Microplasma Devices, CEMPD). The microcavities of the proposed device compose of two coplanar electrodes instead of dielectric or single cathode, which can enhance the density of microcavities. The devices are fabricated by only one wet lithography process, which can simplify the fabrication processes and develop the fabrication uniformity. Two kinds of prototype have been fabricated, line array of CEMPD and arrays of CEMPD. The experiments show that the power loading of each microcavity could reach several kW cm-3. In neon, the luminance of the line array of CEMPD with 12 microcavities driven by AC sinusoidal voltage reaches 2500 cd m-2. The multidischarge phenomenon and a Pressure-Independent Point (PIP) in a group of current-voltage (I-V) curves for the line array of CEMPD have been investigated. The details of these phenomena should be investigated in detail.