About us

Established in 1985 in Fukuyama, Japan, Adtec Plasma Technology originally worked in the development and manufacture of various control boards. By early 1991, we had begun selling High Frequency Plasma Generation Equipment for semiconductor processes – this has remained the core of our business ever since, and we’re one of the World’s leading suppliers of RF Plasma products to the semiconductor and display industries.

Also based at Fukuyama Head Office, the Adtec Innovation department constantly strives to innovate and develop new technology, most notably within cold atmospheric pressure gas plasma technologies.

Consider water. When you apply energy to a solid (ice), you get a liquid (water); apply further energy, you get a gas (steam). But what happens if you keep going?

Continue to apply energy (heat or charge) to a gas, and the matter will eventually became a plasma – hence Plasma’s title as the “4th State of Matter”. Here on Earth, Plasma can be found in the form of lightning, the Northern Lights, and the stuff in fluorescent lamps; in fact, Plasma is a fundamental state of matter, and it is believed that over 99% of the known Universe (think stars!) exists in this state!

The continued supply of energy used to generate plasma artificially is most often in the form of an electromagnetic field. This causes a breakdown of the atomic shells and electrons disassociate from the nucleus. In addition to unbound negative electrons, there are now, importantly, positive charged ions. Plasma can therefore be considered a charged, or ionized, gaseous state. It is electrically neutral and highly conductive.

Plasmas are characterized by their electron density and the average electron energy; broadly, we can speak of “hot” and “cold” plasmas.

The development of Non-Thermal (Cold) Plasma technologies is hugely exciting, and is an area Adtec specialise in. Incredibly, it is possible to generate a plasma that is safe to the human touch!