Fsi International, Inc.

C Fred Hiatt

Jeffery W Butterbaugh

David C Gray

Apparatus and process for conditioning a substrate, contained in a hermetically sealed chamber fed with a conditioning gas which includes a reactive gas, the apparatus including a support for supporting the substrate in the chamber, the substrate being in a lower pressure reaction region of the chamber. A gas inlet is provided for feeding conditioning gas into a gas inlet region of the chamber which is at a higher pressure than the lower pressure reaction region so that the pressure differential causes the conditioning gas to flow toward the surface of the substrate wherein the conditioning gas component will chemically react with and condition the substrate surface, both said higher and lower pressure regions operating in a viscous flow regime. The substrate is supported such that a pressure bias is created across the surface of the substrate such that the gas, after it has chemically reacted with the substrate surface, flows radially outward from where it has reacted, toward the nearest edge of the substrate and out an exhaust outlet.

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Burnsville, MN, United States of America

C Fred Hiatt