as illustrated in fig1 plasma reactor 10 comprises chamber 11 of any suitable shape , process monitoring equipment 12 , and process control equipment 13 . in the particular embodiment illustrated in fig1 chamber 11 comprises a cylindrical section made from any suitable material such as aluminum or quartz . interior to chamber 11 are gas supply port 14 and exhaust port 15 , respectively . within chamber 11 , the plasma is induced between and adjacent to rf electrodes 16 . between electrodes 16 are one or more or more shelves 19 for supporting the packages to be sterilized . to assure a short sterilization time , it is preferred that the packages not be stacked too densely on a shelf , e . g . not more than five deep , since the interior packages tend to be shielded by those on the outside . as illustrated in fig4 the processing time increases with stacking , if all other conditions are unchanged . specifically , curve 31 corresponds to a single layer of packages , while curve 32 corresponds to stacked packages . as is apparent to those of skill in the art , the maximum number of packages that may be stacked one on the other is readily determined empirically and depends upon the nature and size of package . for relatively flat packages containing dressings or hypodermic needles , several shelves may be utilized to assure that the packages are not stacked more than about five deep . fig2 illustrates a typical , relatively flat package suitable for use in the present invention . in particular , package 20 comprises a front and back major surface comprising a porous material . suitable materials include &# 34 ; green tubing &# 34 ;, polyethylene , as sold by american hospital supply corporation . packages suitable for use in the present invention are also made by edward weck & amp ; company under the tradename &# 34 ; weck peel / pack &# 34 ;; minnesota mining and manufacturing company , under the tradename &# 34 ; steri - lock &# 34 ;; and tower products under the tradename &# 34 ; dual peel &# 34 ;. while preferably comprising plastic front and back surfaces , either of the surfaces may comprise paper with the attendant increase in processing time for outgassing of the paper . as illustrated in fig2 the front and back surfaces are formed around article 21 , which is to be kept sterile . the edges 22 of package 20 are then suitably sealed to fully enclose the article . package 20 is then inserted into plasma reactor 10 and subjected to a gas plasma for a suitable period of time to sterilize the article within . while a variety of gases are suitable , it has for example been found that an oxygen plasma at a pressure of 40 pa ( 0 . 3 torr ) for sixty minutes with an applied power of 150 watts will sterilize articles through the package . after the sterilization period is completed , the articles are removed from the reactor and may be stored or sent to the user . while it is an advantage of the present invention that the package may be conveniently fully sealed prior to sterilization , it is understood that one could seal , for example , only three sides of the package prior to sterilization and seal the fourth side subsequent to the plasma sterilization process . fig3 illustrates in cross - section a package in accordance with the present invention wherein article 21 is enclosed by front and back surfaces 22 and 23 respectively having the edges thereof sealed . while illustrated in fig3 as comprising a simple contact seal , it is understood that any suitable sealing mechanism may be used . for example , the two layers of plastic may be folded over to form a heavier edge , thereby preventing accidential opening of the package . further , while illustrated as two separate pieces 22 and 23 , it is understood that one may simply fold a single piece of material to obtain the desired package . there is thus provided by the present invention an improved sterilization and packaging system wherein the packages can be fully closed and sealed prior to the sterilization process . the sterilization process itself is distinctly superior to prior art sterilization systems in that toxic byproducts or residues , as obtained in ethylene oxide sterilization , are not introduced by the present invention . since one can much more rapidly sterilize packaged articles , even a relatively small plasma reactor is capable of sterilizing a much larger quantity of articles than has heretofore been obtainable in the prior art . having thus described the invention , it will be apparent to those of skill in the art that various modifications can be made within the spirit and scope of the present invention . for example , the particular gas chosen , pressure , final temperature , and number of packages , are parameters to be decided by the user depending upon the particular article being sterilized .
a sterilizable package in which a porous envelope containing the article to be sterilized is subjected to a plasma , said plasma being generated outside of said envelope with the reactive components of the plasma passing through said porous envelope , thereby sterilizing the article through the package .