Low-pressure plasma technology can be used to activate or chemically modify polymer surfaces in a simple and efficient way during plasma activation. Activation enables subsequent processes such as painting, bonding, printing and potting – without thermal stress on the material (cold plasma) and without aggressive primers.

The cleaning of surfaces plays an important role in industrial practice, e.g. in increasing the adhesive strength of coatings. Plasma cleaning leaves surfaces completely free of organic contaminants. As this is a dry chemical process at room temperature, the cleaned parts can be processed immediately

Plasma etching (dry etching) is used for the removal (“descum”, “desmear”, “back etch” etc.) of production auxiliaries such as photoresist and sacrificial layers. Practically any organic material can be processed with plasma etching. Thanks to the pronounced mobility of the plasma, even the finest structures can be reached. Another application for plasma technology is the desmearing or etching back of mechanically drilled circuit boards.

In plasma coating, materials or workpieces are given thin functional layers by polymerizing and depositing suitable precursor compounds on surfaces in the plasma state. This enables a defined coating effect to be achieved on a wide variety of materials. The plasma polymerization coating process is also known as PECVD (plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition).