A dielectric barrier discharge always pairs a gas gap with at least one dielectric layer, but the geometry of that pairing changes everything — where the field concentrates, how the gas flows through, and what the reactor is good for. The three canonical arrangements are the planar (parallel-plate), the coaxial (cylindrical, tube-in-tube), and the surface discharge (electrodes on one dielectric face). Switch between them to see the electrode layout and where the discharge forms.
All three keep the discharge non-thermal the same way — the dielectric accumulates surface charge and self-limits each micro-discharge before it can heat into an arc. What differs is the field geometry and the flow path, which is why ACS Material offers planar DBD experiment devices, coaxial reactors for flow-through gas processing, and reaction-kettle cells — each matched to a different experimental need. The discharge patterns here are schematic illustrations of layout and field tendency, not field-solver output.