Applied Materials, Inc.

Applied Komatsu Technology, Inc.

Makoto Inagawa

Shinichi Kurita

Akihiro Hosokawa

John M White

Suhail Anwar

Mehran Behdjat

Takayuki Matsumoto

Brian J Brown

Richard Ernest Demaray

Bradley Owen Stimson

Michael N Sugarman

Hienminh Huu Le

Manoocher Birang

Kyung-Tae Kim

Dong-Kil Yim

Anwar Husain

Jozef Kudela

Ravi Mullapudi

Sam Hyungsam Kim

James Hoffman

Yoshiaki Tanase

Hans Georg Wolf

Billy C Leung

Toshio Kiyotake

Ikuo Mori

William Allan Bagley

Svetlana Sherman

Paohuei Lee

David G Andeen

Sam-Kyung Kim

Jonathan Erik Larson

Michael T Starr

Harlan L Halsey

Dennis Zvalo

Soo Young Choi

Alexander N Lerner

Robin L Tiner

Carl A Sorensen

Gaku Furuta

Jrjyan Jerry Chen

Emanuel Beer

Hien Minh Huu Le

Jeffrey A Kho

Suhas Bhoski

Daniel D Ramar

Embodiments described herein relate to a thermal chamber utilized in the processing of display substrates. The thermal chamber may be part of a larger processing system configured to manufacture OLED devices. The thermal chamber may be configured to heat and cool masks and/or substrates utilized in deposition processes in the processing system. The thermal chamber may include a chamber body defining a volume sized to receive one or more cassettes containing a plurality of masks and/or substrates. Heaters coupled to the chamber body within the volume may be configured to controllably heat masks and/or substrates prior to deposition processes and cool the masks and/or substrates after deposition processes.

Thin film encapsulation mask preheat and substrate buffer chamber

Embodiments disclosed herein generally relate to a slit valve door assembly for sealing an opening in a chamber. A slit valve door that is pressed against the chamber to seal the slit valve opening moves with the chamber as the slit valve opening shrinks so that an o-ring pressed between the slit valve door and the chamber may move with the slit valve door and the chamber. Thus, less rubbing of the o-ring against the chamber may occur. With less rubbing, fewer particles may be generated and the o-ring lifetime may be extended. With a longer lifetime for the o-ring, substrate throughput may be increased.

Slit valve door with moving mating part

A sputter target assembly particularly useful for a large panel plasma sputter reactor having a target assembly sealed both to the main processing chamber and a vacuum pumped chamber housing a moving magnetron. The target assembly to which target tiles are bonded includes an integral plate with parallel cooling holes drilled parallel to the principal faces. The ends of the holes may be sealed and vertically extending slots arranged in two staggered groups on each side and machined down to respective pairs of cooling holes on opposite sides of the backing plate in pairs. Four manifolds tubes are sealed to the four groups of slots and provide counter-flowing coolant paths.

Target cooling through gun drilled holes

Embodiments of the present invention provide a transfer robot having a cooling plate attached thereto for cooling a substrate during transfer between a processing chamber and a load lock chamber. In one embodiment, the cooling plate is a single, large area cooling plate attached to the transfer robot beneath the substrate being transferred. In another embodiment, the cooling plate is an array of substrates attached to the transfer robot beneath the substrate being transferred. The cooling plate may include a conduit path for circulating a cooling fluid throughout the cooling plate. The cooling plate may have an upper surface with a high emissivity coating applied thereto.

Transfer robot with substrate cooling

The present invention generally relates to a vertical CVD system having a processing chamber that is capable of processing multiple substrates. The multiple substrates are disposed on opposite sides of the processing source within the processing chamber, yet the processing environments are not isolated from each other. The processing source is a horizontally centered vertical plasma generator that permits multiple substrates to be processed simultaneously on either side of the plasma generator, yet independent of each other. The system is arranged as a twin system whereby two identical processing lines, each with their own processing chamber, are arranged adjacent to each other. Multiple robots are used to load and unload the substrates from the processing system. Each robot can access both processing lines within the system.

Vertical inline CVD system

A method and apparatus for a transfer robot that having at least one image sensor disposed thereon is provided. The transfer robot includes a lift assembly having a first drive assembly for moving a first platform relative to a second platform in a first linear direction, an end effector assembly disposed on the second platform and movable in a second linear direction by a second drive assembly, the second linear direction being orthogonal to the first linear direction, at least one image sensor, and a lighting device associated with the at least one image sensor.

Substrate transfer robot with chamber and substrate monitoring capability

A method and apparatus for providing an electrically symmetrical ground or return path for electrical current between two electrodes is described. The apparatus includes at least on radio frequency (RF) device coupled to one of the electrodes and between a sidewall and/or a bottom of a processing chamber. The method includes moving one electrode relative to another and realizing a ground return path based on the position of the displaced electrode using one or both of a RF device coupled to a sidewall and the electrode, a RF device coupled to a bottom of the chamber and the electrode, or a combination thereof.

Ground return for plasma processes

The present invention generally comprises a top shield for shielding a shadow frame within a PVD chamber. The top shield may remain in a stationary position and at least partially shield the shadow frame to reduce the amount of material that may deposit on the shadow frame during processing. The top shield may be cooled to reduce the amount of fluxuation in temperature of the top shield and shadow frame during processing and/or during down time.

Cooled PVD shield

A magnetron assembly including one or more magnetrons each forming a closed plasma loop on the sputtering face of the target. The target may include multiple strip targets on which respective strip magnetrons roll and are partially supported on a common support plate through a spring mechanism. The strip magnetron may be a two-level folded magnetron in which each magnetron forms a folded plasma loop extending between lateral sides of the strip target and its ends meet in the middle of the target. The magnets forming the magnetron may be arranged in a pattern having generally uniform straight portions joined by curved portion in which extra magnet positions are available near the corners to steer the plasma track. Multiple magnetrons, possibly flexible, may be resiliently supported on a scanned support plate and individually partially supported by rollers on the back of one or more targets.

Ganged scanning of multiple magnetrons, especially two level folded magnetrons

Embodiments disclosed herein relate to a large vacuum chamber body that has been welded together. The chamber body may have a high emissivity coating on at least one surface therein. Due to the large size of the chamber body, the chamber body may be formed by welding several pieces together rather than forging the body from a single piece of metal. The pieces may be welded together at a location spaced from the corner of the body, which may be under the greatest stress during evacuation, to ensure that the weld, which may be the weakest point in the body, does not fail. At least one surface of the chamber body may be coated with a high emissivity coating to aid in heat transfer from incoming, heated substrates. The high emissivity coating may increase substrate throughput by lowering the time that may be needed to reduce the substrate temperature.

Electron beam welding of large vacuum chamber body having a high emissivity coating

Slit valve door able to compensate for chamber deflection

Heater plate and heater element assembly

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Makoto Inagawa