| Title |
Impedance Characteristics of N2 Plasma and Matching Circuit Design |
| Abstract |
In the design of an RF discharge system, the electrical equivalence of the gas discharge must be known. With this knowledge, one can design a suitable matching network for a maximum power transfer from the RF generator into the discharge. For this purpose, an experiment has been conducted in which the electrical impedance (conductance and capacitance) was determined as a function of power. In parallel with this, a detailed theoretical analysis has been done and the results are in accord with those of our experiment. Design equations are also given for a simple matching network, and a design example is presented to demonstrate its application. During the actual operation of an RF discharge system, however, it has been often observed that the reflected power tends to vary in small values due to the changes in the impedance of the system. This problem can be relieved by adding an automatic impedance matching circuit to the system and this paper presents such an automatic impedance matching network. |