Sarah J. Davis,Caleb T. Nelson,Jodi L. Connell,Joshua D. Erickson,Jeffrey D. Smith,Jay R. Goetz,Nicholas R. Powley,Matthew T. Scholz
申请号：
US15733310
公开号：
US20200316239A1
申请日:
2018.12.26
申请国别(地区):
US
年份:
2020
代理人:
摘要：
A system and methods for sterilizing and drying contaminated articles, particularly medical articles, and more particularly the hollow internal areas of medical instruments or lumens of medical endoscopes. The system includes a plasma generator having an electrode, a shield, and a dielectric gap between the electrode and the shield. A source of electrical power connected to the plasma generator applies an electrode energy density between the electrode and the shield. A source of a sterilizing gas precursor provides a flow of the sterilizing gas precursor through the plasma generator to generate a plasma, thereby forming a sterilizing gas including acidic and/or oxidizing species. The contaminated article is exposed to the sterilizing gas for a time sufficient to achieve a desired degree of sterilization. A turbulent flow of a drying gas is used to dry the contaminated article alternately with the exposure of the contaminated article to the sterilizing gas.
