Charging of moving surfaces by corona discharges sustained in air

Atmospheric pressure corona discharges are used in electrophotographic (EP) printing technologies for charging imaging surfaces such as photoconductors. A typical corona discharge consists of a wire (or wire array) biased with a few hundred volts of dc plus a few kV of ac voltage. An electric discharge is produced around the corona wire from which electrons drift towards and charge the underlying dielectric surface. The surface charging reduces the voltage drop across the gap between the corona wire and the dielectric surface, which then terminates the discharge, as in a dielectric barrier discharge. In printing applications, this underlying surface is continuously moving throughout the charging process. For example, previously charged surfaces, which had reduced the local electric field and terminated the local discharge, are translated out of the field of view and are replaced with uncharged surface. The uncharged surface produces a rebound in the electric field in the vicinity of the corona wire which in turn results in re-ignition of the discharge. The discharge, so reignited, is then asymmetric. We found that in the idealized corona charging system we investigated, a negatively dc biased corona blade with a dielectric covered ground electrode, the discharge is initially sustained by electron impact ionization from the bulk plasma and then dominated by ionization from sheath accelerated secondary electrons. Depending on the speed of the underlying surface, the periodic re-ignition of the discharge can produce an oscillatory charging pattern on the moving surface.