Apjet offers a line of atmospheric pressure plasma products that we call e−Rio®, the electron river. Rivers of electrons and ionized gases can be molded into shapes that fit a wide variety of materials processing applications. They include round jets and flat jets for downstream processing of substrates and a flat stage and roller jet for in-situ processing as shown below. The products can be classified as R & D units, Pilot units or Production units. Customers typically purchase one of these products for evaluation and/or contract with APJeT to develop a process application. APJeT then works with the customer to tailor plasma source designs or develops full systems incorporating the plasma source for their specific application. When the design has been tested and finalized, APJeT manufactures these units under contract to the customer. APJeT welcomes small R&D purchases as well as full production-scale units. Field service for our production units is handled by strategic partners and licensees.

R&D Units:

Basic Roundjet (e-Rio Model RJ 100)

Despite the flame-like appearance seen in the side photo, the gas temperature is typically only 50-150 degrees C. The first design produced for the APPJ® technology, this plasma source produces a robust flux of active species (> 10¹⁹cm^-2 s^-1) that is produced by the coaxial plasma between the rf-driven center electrode (not shown) and the outer, grounded electrode. By blowing the plasma-generated, active species onto the fabric or nonwoven substrate, we graft chemical species onto its surface to provide selected material attributes, such as hydrophobicity or anti-microbial properties. This inexpensive unit can be easily set up in a vented enclosure for testing and process development applications. It can be used for textile, non-wovens, plastics and a large host of other substrate applications. We will be happy to discuss how your application can be tested for a minimal investment with this easy-to-use and inexpensive source.

Basic Flatjet (e-Rio Model FJ 100-X)

1. An rf power generator and matching network (APJeT can help select those or can provide units pre-tuned to your process requirement)
2. A gas handling system that includes at least 99.5% pure helium and
3. A water-cooling system compatible with the electrode materials.

Basic Thin-Film Deposition Jet (e-Rio Model 100)

A modified flatjet, the deposition jet is designed for depositing thin-films onto substrates, such as textiles, non-wovens and other materials. To do this, a precursor gas is fed into a special channel cut into the rf-electrode (shown in the above photo as the electrode in the center). The precursor gas exits through a slit in the rf-electrode and then mixes with the active species produced by the plasma, resulting in formation of a solid film on the substrate. This film can be as thin as several nm, or as thick as several microns. Like the flatjet, the deposition jet can be scaled to practically any size and may be stacked for rapid deposition of the same film, or for deposition of multiple films of different composition.

Our application engineers are highly experienced in designing specialized units suitable for your application.

Basic Roller Jet (e-Rio Model RLJ 100-X)

APJeT's proprietary, high-power plasma technology is unsurpassed for high volume, high-throughput, plasma-treatment applications. Engineering a plasma-treatment application requires development of the plasma chemistry to get the desired properties, and that development process requires a determination of the dwell time in the plasma. Dwell time can be as little as a fraction of a second for many of APJeT's high power processes, or as long as 20 minutes or more for the technology represented by APJeT's competitors!

If the customer's linespeed is 20 m/min or more (and a typical textile manufacturing line speed is around 100 m/min), dwell time can have a dramatic effect on the practicality of the plasma process, as shown in the table below. Simply put, it is impractical to consider the implementation of a plasma treatment unit that requires more than 3m of active plasma area.

Clearly, the use of high power plasma is the only practical approach for implementation of plasma technology into an industry, such as textile manufacturing, that requires high volume processing!

We can condense the size of a plasma treatment system even further by the use of cylindrical electrodes, such as those used in the "Roller Jet" product. In this design, the rf-driven, center electrode rotates as the fabric moves in and out of the unit. exposing the fabric to the plasma generated between the center electrode and the outer, grounded electrode. An R&D cylindrical electrode unit, called the "Roller Jet", is shown below.