Applied Materials, Inc.

Penchala N Kankanala

Michael Robert Rice

Jeffrey C Hudgens

Eric Andrew Englhardt

Dean C Hruzek

Michael C Kuchar

Sushant Suresh Koshti

John Joseph Mazzocco

Michael Meyers

John M White

Soo Young Choi

Charles T Carlson

James S Papanu

Tae Kyung Won

Nir Merry

David Tanner

Robert Z Bachrach

Shuran Sheng

Danny Cam Toan Lu

Jagan Rangarajan

Jeffrey S Sullivan

Yacov Elgar

Asaf Schlezinger

Stephen P Murphy

James Craig Hunter

Mike Rice

Charles Gay

Liwei Li

Wyland L Atkins

Fang Mei

Nicholas G J De Vries

Parris Hawkins

Yong-Kee Chae

Chandrakant M Sapkale

John J Rosato

Tzay-Fa (Jeff) Su

Michel Ranjit Frei

Teresa Trowbridge

Scott Meyer

Douglas Richards

Evanson G Baiya

Srujal (Steve) Patel

Matthew J B Saunders

Brice Walker

Paul Lester

Constantin Predoaica

Karuppasamy Muthukamtchi

Choi (Gene) Ho

Wing Hoo (Hendrick) Lo

A transfer chamber configured to be used during semiconductor device manufacturing is described. Transfer chamber includes at least one first side of a first width configured to couple to one or more substrate transfer units (e.g., one or more load locks or one or more pass-through units), and at least a second set of sides of a second width that is different than the first width, the second set of sides configured to couple to one or more processing chambers. A total number of sides of the transfer chamber is at least seven. Transfers within the transfer chamber are serviceable by a single robot. Process tools and methods for processing substrates are described, as are numerous other aspects.

Transfer chambers with an increased number of sides, semiconductor device manufacturing processing tools, and processing methods

Process chamber gas flow control apparatus having a tiltable valve are disclosed. The gas flow apparatus includes a process chamber adapted to contain a substrate, an exit from the process chamber including a valve seat, and a tiltable valve configured and adapted to tilt relative to the valve seat to control flow non-uniformities within the process chamber. Systems and methods including the tiltable valve apparatus are disclosed, as are numerous other aspects.

Process chamber gas flow apparatus, systems, and methods

Embodiments of the present invention generally provide an apparatus and method for transferring substrates in a processing system (e.g., a cluster tool) that has an increased system throughput, increased system reliability, improved device yield performance, a more repeatable wafer processing history (or wafer history), and a reduced footprint when compared to conventional techniques.

End effector for a cluster tool

The present invention generally relates to a system that can be used to form a photovoltaic device, or solar cell, using processing modules that are adapted to perform one or more steps in the solar cell formation process. The automated solar cell fab is generally an arrangement of automated processing modules and automation equipment that is used to form solar cell devices. The automated solar fab will thus generally comprise a substrate receiving module that is adapted to receive a substrate, one or more absorbing layer deposition cluster tools having at least one processing chamber that is adapted to deposit a silicon-containing layer on a surface of the substrate, one or more back contact deposition chambers, one or more material removal chambers, a solar cell encapsulation device, an autoclave module, an automated junction box attaching module, and one or more quality assurance modules that are adapted to test and qualify the completely formed solar cell device.

Automated integrated solar cell production line composed of a plurality of automated modules and tools including an autoclave for curing solar devices that have been laminated

The present invention generally provides an apparatus and method for processing and transferring substrates in a multi-chamber processing system that has the capability of receiving and performing single substrate processing steps performed in parallel, while using the many favorable aspects of batch processing. Embodiments of the invention described herein are adapted to maximize system throughput, reduce system cost, reduce cost per substrate during processing, increase system reliability, improve the device yield on the processed substrates, and reduce system footprint. In one embodiment, the cluster tool is adapted to perform a wet/clean process sequence in which various substrate cleaning processes are performed on a substrate in the cluster tool.

Wet clean system design

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Penchala N Kankanala