In modern industrial production, as products continue to evolve towards higher precision, higher performance, and higher reliability, traditional mechanical processing, chemical cleaning, and surface treatment methods are increasingly exposed to problems such as low efficiency, high pollution, and poor stability. To meet the demands of new materials and processes, plasma surface treatment technology is becoming a key process in many industries. With its high efficiency, environmental friendliness, and adaptability, plasma not only optimizes production processes but also drives technological advancements in the manufacturing industry.

I. Basic Principles of Plasma Technology

Plasma, the fourth state of matter, consists of electrons, ions, neutral particles, and reactive free radicals, and possesses extremely high chemical activity. When applied to a material surface, plasma can achieve the following functions:

Micro-cleaning: Removes organic contaminants, grease, oxide layers, and microparticles to ensure surface cleanliness.

Surface activation: Significantly increases surface energy and improves wettability by introducing polar groups (such as hydroxyl and carboxyl groups).

Etching: Selectively removes surface layers, creating nanoscale roughness and enhancing adhesion.

Coating/Plasma Polymerization: Utilizes plasma to deposit functional thin films, such as waterproof, antifouling, and antistatic coatings.

Compared to traditional chemical or mechanical methods, plasma treatment offers advantages such as low temperature, no liquid contamination, and high controllability, leading to its increasing popularity in industrial production.

II. Core Advantages of Plasma in Industrial Production

Improving Adhesion
In spraying, printing, dispensing, and bonding processes, material surfaces often suffer from poor adhesion due to low surface energy. After plasma treatment, the surface energy of materials is increased several times or even dozens of times, significantly enhancing the bonding strength of inks, coatings, and adhesives.

Improving Product Yield and Consistency
Plasma treatment allows for precise control of the treatment area and intensity, ensuring consistent surface properties across batches in large-scale production, significantly reducing rework rates.

Environmental Protection and Green Manufacturing
Plasma treatment eliminates the use of liquid chemicals such as strong acids and alkalis, avoiding waste discharge and meeting the requirements of green manufacturing and sustainable development.

Flexible Integration, Adaptable to Automated Production Lines
Both low-pressure vacuum plasma systems and atmospheric plasma jet systems can be directly integrated into existing production lines, enabling in-line processing, reducing downtime between processes, and improving production efficiency.

III. Plasma Applications in Various Industries
1. LED Industry

LED manufacturing places extremely high demands on luminous efficacy, lifespan, and reliability. Plasma cleaning removes residue from substrates and chip packaging, improves surface energy, and ensures uniform adhesion of phosphors, encapsulant, and protective films. Especially in Mini/Micro LEDs, where chips are numerous and small in size, plasma significantly improves the stability of dispensing, transfer, and soldering processes, ensuring display uniformity and high yield.

2. PCBA (Printed Circuit Board Assembly)

During SMT placement and soldering, insufficient PCB surface wettability can lead to defects such as poor solder paste wetting and cold solder joints. Plasma pretreatment can significantly reduce the water drop angle, improve solder paste spreading, and enhance soldering reliability. Furthermore, plasma activation of the surface before conformal coating ensures coating uniformity, preventing delamination, bubbles, and uneven coating.

3. Semiconductor Industry

Semiconductor packaging and assembly processes place extremely stringent demands on surface cleanliness and adhesion.

Die Bonding: Plasma removes the substrate oxide layer, improving chip adhesion and heat dissipation.

Wire Bonding: Plasma cleans the pads to ensure solder joint strength and consistency.

Molding/Encapsulation: By increasing surface energy, the bonding strength between the molding compound and the chip/substrate is enhanced, improving package reliability.

Plasma has become an indispensable process for chip packaging and advanced packaging (such as fan-out and 3D packaging).

4. Flat Panel Display (FPD)

In LCD, OLED, and new display technologies, plasma is widely used for:

Cleaning ITO glass and thin films to improve adhesion between photoresist and film layers;

Laminating polarizers and optical films to reduce bubbles and delamination;

OLED encapsulation to improve the bond strength between the barrier layer and substrate, extending device life;

Mini/Micro LED displays to improve substrate-to-chip bonding consistency.

Plasma ensures stable production of large-size displays and high-resolution panels.

5. Plastics

Due to their low surface energy, plastics are often difficult to achieve high-quality spraying, printing, or bonding. Plasma effectively activates the plastic surface, introducing polar groups, significantly improving surface wettability and ensuring secure adhesion of inks, coatings, and adhesives. It is widely used in automotive interiors, medical consumables, packaging materials, electronic housings, and other fields.

6. Lithium-ion Battery

The performance and lifespan of lithium-ion batteries depend on the surface properties of the material.

Electrode plates: Plasma cleaning improves electrolyte wettability and reduces interfacial impedance.

Separators: Improves electrolyte absorption and enhances ion conduction efficiency.

Tags and current collectors: Removes oxide layers, improves welding/bonding strength, and reduces contact resistance.

Encapsulation: Enhances the bond between aluminum-plastic film and adhesive, ensuring sealing reliability.

Plasma processing ensures the safety and cycle life of power batteries and energy storage batteries.

7. Automotive Industry

With the development of new energy vehicles and smart cars, plasma is widely used in:

Lighting: Improves the surface energy of lenses and reflectors, ensuring uniform coating adhesion.

Interior and exterior trim: Improves the adhesion of spray coatings and screen printing on plastic parts, enhancing wear and weather resistance.

Glass: Improves the bonding strength of film and coating, preventing bubbles and delamination.

Sensors and electronic modules: Improves bonding and sealing performance, ensuring reliable operation in high-temperature, high-humidity, and vibration environments.

8. Consumer Electronics

Plasma technology is used in several key processes in products such as mobile phones, tablets, and wearable devices:

Display modules: Improving the bonding quality between glass cover and OCA adhesive;

Casing processing: Improving spray coating and printing adhesion to ensure a high-quality appearance;

Camera modules: Strengthening the bond between the lens and the housing to prevent dust intrusion and air bubbles;

Battery and complete device assembly: Ensuring sealing and enhancing water and dust resistance.

IV. Future Development Trends

As industry evolves towards intelligent manufacturing, green manufacturing, and precision manufacturing, the application prospects of plasma technology are expanding:

Integration with intelligent detection: Water droplet angle measurement and optical inspection are linked with plasma systems to enable online process monitoring.

Customized processes: Developing specific gas combinations and treatment methods for different materials and application scenarios.

Multifunctional integration: Combining cleaning, activation, and deposition to achieve a variety of surface treatment needs in one step.

Sustainable development: Plasma replaces solvent and acid-base cleaning, helping the industry achieve low-carbon and environmentally friendly goals.

Conclusion

As an efficient, environmentally friendly, and controllable surface treatment technology, plasma is reshaping industrial production. From semiconductors to automobiles, from consumer electronics to new energy, plasma not only improves product quality and reliability but also drives the transformation and upgrading of the entire manufacturing industry. In the future, with continuous innovation in processes and equipment, plasma will demonstrate tremendous potential in even more fields, becoming an indispensable "invisible force" in industrial production.