Plasma printing and related techniques - Patterning of surfaces using microplasmas at atmospheric pressure

The interest in applications of atmospheric-pressure plasmas to solve surface-technological tasks was originally motivated primarily by the expectation that major cost savings could be achieved if plasma-based processes, conventionally run below 1?mbar, could now be performed at ambient pressure. However, it was soon recognized that, working at 1 bar, also completely new techniques are made feasible by the utilization of microdischarges, thanks to strongly reduced mean free paths of plasma constituents. The present contribution gives an overview of a number of possibilities, studied in the recent years, to apply atmospheric-pressure microplasmas for the patterned coating or surface modification of two- and three-dimensional substrates.