Patent ID: 8038775

Claim:
An ionizing bar that directs a clean ionized gas stream toward an attractive non-ionizing electric field of a charge neutralization target, the ionizing bar receiving a non-ionized gas stream, exhausting a contaminant gas stream away from the charge neutralization target, and receiving an ionizing electrical potential sufficient to induce corona discharge at plural electrodes, the ionizing bar comprising: at least one gas channel that receives the non-ionized gas stream and that directs the clean ionized gas stream toward the charge neutralization target; at least one evacuation-channel that exhausts the contaminant gas stream from the ionizing bar and away from the charge neutralization target; and plural shell assemblies, each shell assembly comprising: a shell having an orifice in gas communication with the gas channel such that a portion of the non-ionized gas stream enters the shell; at least one ionizing electrode that produces a plasma region, comprising ions and contaminant byproducts, in response to application of the ionizing electrical potential, the ionizing electrode being disposed within the shell such that the electrode is recessed from the shell orifice by a distance that is at least substantially equal to the size of the plasma region whereby at least a substantial portion of the produced ions migrate into the non-ionized gas stream to thereby form the clean ionized gas stream that is drawn toward the charge neutralization target by the non-ionizing electrical field; and at least one evacuation port, in gas communication with the evacuation-channel and the shell, that presents a gas pressure within the shell and in the vicinity of the shell orifice that is lower than the pressure of the non-ionized gas stream outside the shell and in the vicinity of the orifice, whereby a portion of the non-ionized gas stream flows into the shell and sweeps at least a substantial portion of the contaminant byproducts into the contaminant gas stream exhausted by the evacuation-channel.