Development of LTCC Based Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Devices for Biofilm Removal

Biofilms are ubiquitous in natural and manmade environments. Biofilms in medical and agricultural/industrial processing environments serve as potential reservoirs for infectious pathogens that constitute a safety risk to patients and consumers. While harsh chemicals and abrasive treatments are the current standard for biofilm removal, cold atmospheric pressure plasma devices may constitute a safer alternative to traditional cleaning protocols. Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC) materials provide a platform to rapidly develop and test different plasma device configurations to treat biofilms. LTCC plasma devices can be built in a variety of configurations using two silver electrode conductors embedded within thin ceramic plates engineered to make a gas flow channel. An alternating voltage is applied to ionize molecules within the gas flow to create a cold atmospheric pressure plasma that contains reactive oxygen and nitrogen species with antimicrobial activity. Our results show that plasmas can be directed to ablate biofilms from surfaces and kill resident pathogenic bacteria. Through research of these devices, a more practical method to efficiently and cost effectively remove biofilms from a variety of medical and industrial surfaces can be developed.