Plasma processing provides interfacial energies and injected monomer fragments larger than comparable processes. However, limited fluxes prevent high process rates. In addition, plasmas are thermodynamically unfavorable and therefore plasma-processed surfaces lack uniformity, consistency, and permanence. These obstacles with plasma processing preclude it from being a competitive surface modification method within industry.
The process begins with production of plasma via ionization either by deposition on monomer mixtures or gaseous carrier ions. The power required to produce the necessary plasma flux can be derived from the active volume mass/energy balance:
where
 is the active volume
 is the ionization rate
 is the neutral density
 is the electron density
 is the ion loss by diffusion, convection, attachment, and recombination
Dissipation is generally initiated via direct current (DC), radio frequency (RF), or microwave power. Gas ionization efficiency can decrease the power efficiency more than tenfold depending on the carrier plasma and substrate.