Characterization of a solid state air corona charging device

Two new solid state devices which produced an atmospheric air corona discharge for generating and depositing a layer of static charge for Xerographic imaging have been fabricated and characterized. One type had a parallel plate capacitive structure and the other had an interdigitated capacitive structure. It was determined that the interdigitated capacitive structure performed better than the parallel plate capacitive structure in terms of reduced power consumption, charging current stability and device reliability. Several metal electrode material alternatives were investigated and gold electrodes performed the best. The air corona's light emission peaks were measured to be in the 350 nm to 400 nm range. Ozone gas by-product generation to similar to 13 ppm was detected for an active surface area of 5 cm(boolean AND)2. Charge deposition on to an imaging drum surface with a significant charging current density of 1.6E-4 A/cm(boolean AND)2 has been successfully demonstrated.