2024 Faculty Courses School of Engineering Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Graduate major in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Plasma Engineering
- Academic unit or major
- Graduate major in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
- Instructor(s)
- Hiroshi Akatsuka / Akitoshi Okino
- Class Format
- Lecture
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 3-4 Tue / 3-4 Fri
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- EEE.P451
- Number of credits
- 200
- Course offered
- 2024
- Offered quarter
- 1Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 14, 2025
- Language
- English
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
Plasma is electrically neutral ionized gas consisting of electrons and ions. Plasma plays an important role in modern engineering. Theory and concepts dealing with the plasma are fairly common in the electrical and electronic engineering.
In this course, students will learn from the basics of plasma physics, plasma generation, measurement, to industrial applications of plasma.
It includes excitation and ionization, motion of charged particles in electromagnetic fields, plasma as particles, plasma as fluid, collision and transportation, confinement of plasma, wave in the plasma, and plasma measurement.
Course description and aims
[Goal] The concept and discussion of plasma physics have become one of the fundamentals in all aspects of science and engineering. In particular, electrical and electronic engineers and researchers must learn plasma physics as well as electromagnetism. The goal is to understand fundamentals and applications of plasmas from the viewpoints of engineering, starting from movement of charged particles in electromagnetic field, characteristics as a group of charged particles, and ionization phenomena.
Student learning outcomes
実務経験と講義内容との関連 (又は実践的教育内容)
In this lecture, an instructor who has practical experience in the development and commercialization of plasma devices will use the practical experience to provide education on the generation and application of plasma. In addition, education on plasma equipment and thermo-nuclear fusion will be provided by another faculty member who have practical experience in nuclear fusion, plasma equipment design and development, and on-site construction coordination at NEC Corp.
Keywords
Plasma, discharge, ionization, excitation, Boltzmann equation, drift motion, magnetic moment, dispersion relation, sheath, plasmas for semiconductor processing, thermonuclear fusion
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
Each lecture uses PowerPoint or the blackboard. Free software uploaded to the internet will be used as necessary, and simple calculation problems will be suggested. Please read carefully the learning goals for each class and review sufficiently. To confirm your understanding a small test may be carried out, so please bring a scientific calculator.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Introduction. What is plasma? | Students shall understand contents of this lecture. |
| Class 2 | Basic processes in gas | Students shall understand basic processes in gas such as particle collision. |
| Class 3 | Generation of plasma | Students shall understand generation process of discharge plasma. |
| Class 4 | Mass properties of plasma | Students shall understand mass properties of plasma such as plasma oscillation. |
| Class 5 | Various ways of plasma generation and characteristics | Students shall understand Various ways of plasma generation and characteristics. |
| Class 6 | Atomic/molecular process in plasma | Students shall understand atomic/molecular process in plasma such as collision, excitation, ionization, emission. |
| Class 7 | Applications and measurements of plasma, and confirmation of understanding of first half lecture. | Students shall understand latest plasma applications and measurements. A confirmation test is performed for the first half. |
| Class 8 | Kinetic theory of gases, derivation of the Boltzmann equation, and derivation of fluid equation of plasmas, Debye length | Students shall understand the derivation of Boltzmann equation for describing the electron energy distribution function, and the fluid equation as the moment equation. |
| Class 9 | Plasma oscillation, Particle movement in plasmas, conservation of the magnetic moment, drift motion, electrical conductivity, generalized Ohm's law | Students shall understand the motion of plasma as charged particles, magnetic moment, various drift motions, and the electrical conductivity. |
| Class 10 | Waves in plasmas - dispersion relation, two-fluid plasma equation, and electrostatic wave, electromagnetic waves | Students shall understand various electromagnetic waves and electrostatic waves in plasma and how to derive equations describing them to understand the dispersion relation. In addition, they shall understand the necessity in which case we must describe the motion of ions separately, and the characteristics of electrostatic wave as longitudinal wave. |
| Class 11 | Diffusion, dynamic equilibrium and stability of plasmas | Students shall also understand the basics of diffusion, dynamic equilibrium and stability of plasmas. |
| Class 12 | Boundary conditions of plasmas - sheath and presheath, probe measurement, potential formation of lab-scale plasmas, plasma etching and deposition | Students shall understand the structure of sheath, as the boundary of the plasma and the substances in plasma. They shall also understand the probe measurement as its application. They shall also be able to explain plasma etching and deposition for plasma electronics. |
| Class 13 | Numerical simulation of plasmas | Students shall understand the two plasma simulation techniques; the fluid method and the particle method. And they shall perform case study of each application. |
| Class 14 | Contemporary R&D topics of thermonuclear fusion plasmas | Students shall understand a variety of plasma fusion methods and the current status of the R & D issues. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
Nothing special
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Ken Yukimura "Discharge plasma engineering", Ohm-sha
Masanori Akasaki "Fundamentals of plasma engineering", Sabgyo-tosho
Yasuyoshi Yasaka "Discharge plasma engineering", Morikita-shuppan
Ryouichi Hanaoka "High voltage engineering", Morikita-shuppan
Evaluation methods and criteria
Exercises in each lecture (70%), confirmation of understandings with term report submission (30%).
Related courses
- EEE.P331 ： High Voltage Engineering
- EEE.P461 ： Pulsed Power Technology
- NCL.A402 ： Nuclear Fusion Reactor Engineering
- EEE.D592 ： Advanced Topics on Material Analysis and Basics of Plasma Processing for Nano Devices
Prerequisites
Electromagnetic theory and applied mathematics of undergraduate level