Study of uniformity of atmospheric pressure plasma microjet array for maskless parallel micropatterned etching

A novel atmospheric pressure plasma microjet (APP mu J) array is proposed to realize maskless parallel micropatterned etching of materials. Due to applying microfabrication technology, the dimension and distance of multiple jets in an array can be adjusted at a micro/nanoscale. However, interactions among multiple jets often lead to inconsistency of microjets and nonuniformity of sample etching. In this study, a 1 x 2 APP mu J array with 90-mu m nozzles and varying jet-to-jet distance is developed. The effects of different operating factors on the consistency of the APP mu J array are investigated. The experiment results show that the consistency of the microjet array and uniformity of sample etching can be greatly improved by optimizing operating parameters, such as applied voltage, gas flow rate, and jet-to-jet distance.