Analysis of factors impacting atmospheric pressure plasma polishing

Atmospheric pressure plasma polishing (APPP) is a noncontact precision machining technology that uses low temperature plasma chemical reactions to perform atom-scale material removal. APPP is a complicated process, which is affected by many factors. Through a preliminary theoretical analysis and simulation, we confirmed that some of the key factors are the radio frequency (RF) power, the working distance, and the gas ratio. We studied the influence of the RF power and gas ratio on the removal rate using atomic emission spectroscopy, and determined the removal profiles in actual operation using a commercial form talysurf. The experimental results agreed closely with the theoretical simulations and confirmed the effect of the working distance. Finally, we determined the element compositions of the machined surfaces under different gas ratios using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to study the influence of the gas ratio in more detail. We achieved a surface roughness of Ra 0.6 nm on silicon wafers with a peak removal rate of approximately 32 mm³/min.