Gas plasma disinfection and sterilisation apparatus
AssigneeCreo Medical Limited
InventorsChristopher Paul Hancock, Steven Morris
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sterilization or disinfecting system in which non-thermal plasma is generated in pulses, in which pulses of microwave frequency energy are used to sustain each plasma pulse, and a detectable characteristic of each pulse of microwave energy is used to trigger a radiofrequency strike pulse which strikes the plasma. The system includes a strike signal generation circuit arranged to condition and/or process the signal from the microwave signal coupler to form a control signal based on the detectable characteristic, which may be the rising edge or amplitude of the pulse.
Claims28
Plasma sterilization apparatus comprising:
- a microwave source;
- a microwave cavity connectable to receive pulses of microwave frequency radiation from the microwave source;
- a microwave coupler arranged to couple microwave energy out of the microwave cavity to a plasma strike zone, the plasma strike zone having a the gas flow path therethrough;
- a gas feed connectable to supply ionizable gas to the gas flow path;
- and
- a strike signal generation circuit arranged to deliver a pulse of radiofrequency (RF) energy to the plasma strike zone to generate a high electric field therein for striking a non-thermal plasma in ionizable gas present on the gas flow path,
- wherein the strike signal generation circuit includes control circuitry arranged to use a detectable characteristic of a pulse of the microwave frequency radiation received in the microwave cavity to trigger generation of the pulse of RF energy.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.