Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc.

Nexx Systems Packaging, LLC

Unaxis USA Inc.

Singulus Mocvd Gmbh I.gr.

Veeco Instruments Inc.

Aventa Technologies, Inc.

Other

Applied Science & Technology, Inc.

Finens Corporation

Piero Sferlazzo

David Felsenthal

Chunghsin Lee

Darren M Simonelli

Martin P Klein

Costel Biloiu

Vikram Singh

Christopher R Hatem

Richard John Hertel

Dale K Stone

Shurong Liang

Roger Bradford Fish

Christopher W Campbell

Boris L Druz

Tsung-Liang Chen

Alexander C Kontos

Glen F R Gilchrist

William E Quinn

Alexander I Gurary

Eric Armour

Alan V Hayes

Robert C Krause

Viktor Kanarov

Ira Reiss

Dogan Gunes

Donald N Polner

Paul A Maki

Robert P Couilliard

Roger P Fremgen, Jr

Volodymyr Evgenievich Strelnytskiy

Ivan I Aksenov

Volodymyr V Vasylyev

Paul Thomas Fabiano

Steve Ting

Kenneth J Bures

Matthew C Farrell

Thomas Michael Lampros

Olexandr A Luchaninov

Dennis R Stucky

Isaak Zaritskiy

A method of doping a substrate. The method may include providing a substrate in a process chamber. The substrate may include a semiconductor structure, and a dopant layer disposed on a surface of the semiconductor structure. The method may include maintaining the substrate at a first temperature for a first interval, the first temperature corresponding to a vaporization temperature of the dopant layer. The method may further include rapidly cooling the substrate to a second temperature, less than the first temperature, and heating the substrate from the second temperature to a third temperature, greater than the first temperature.

Method and apparatus for non line-of-sight doping

An apparatus to treat a substrate. The apparatus may include a reactive gas source having a reactive gas outlet disposed in a process chamber, the reactive gas outlet to direct a first reactive gas to the substrate; a plasma chamber coupled to the process chamber and including an extraction plate having an extraction aperture extending along a first direction, disposed within the process chamber and movable along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction between a first position facing the reactive gas source and a second position facing the extraction aperture; and a gas flow restrictor disposed between the reactive gas outlet and the extraction aperture, the gas flow restrictor defining a differential pumping channel between at least the plasma chamber and substrate stage.

Apparatus and techniques to treat substrates using directional plasma and reactive gas

A showerhead apparatus for a linear batch CVD system includes a movable showerhead, one or more gas supply conduits, and a translation mechanism. Each gas supply conduit provides a precursor gas to the showerhead. The showerhead includes conduits and channels arranged along the length of the showerhead to distribute precursor gas to the surfaces of substrates. The small distance between the substrates and the showerhead limits precursor gas flows from the channels to a small portion of each substrate beneath the showerhead. During a deposition process run, the translation mechanism causes the showerhead to move back and forth over the substrates along a direction perpendicular to a linear arrangement of the substrates. Parasitic deposition within the deposition chamber is substantially reduced in comparison to conventional showerhead apparatus. The ability to accurately control the precursor gas flows and the motion of the showerhead allows for improved thickness uniformity and device yield.

Showerhead apparatus for a linear batch chemical vapor deposition system

Method and apparatus for processing a substrate with an energetic particle beam. Features on the substrate are oriented relative to the energetic particle beam and the substrate is scanned through the energetic particle beam. The substrate is periodically indexed about its azimuthal axis of symmetry, while shielded from exposure to the energetic particle beam, to reorient the features relative to the major dimension of the beam.

Method and apparatus for surface processing of a substrate using an energetic particle beam

Described is a parallel batch CVD system that includes a pair of linear deposition chambers in a parallel arrangement and a robotic loading module disposed between the chambers. Each chamber includes a linear arrangement of substrate receptacles, gas injectors to supply at least one gas in a uniform distribution across the substrates, and a heating module for uniformly controlling a temperature of the substrates. The robotic loading module is configured for movement in a direction parallel to a length of each of the chambers and includes at least one cassette for carrying substrates to be loaded into the substrate receptacles of the chambers. The parallel batch CVD system is suitable for high volume processing of substrates. The CVD processes performed in the chambers can be the same process. Alternatively, the CVD processes may be different and substrates processed in one chamber may be subsequently processed in the other chamber.

Parallel batch chemical vapor deposition system

Described is a linear batch CVD system that includes a deposition chamber, one or more substrate carriers, gas injectors and a heating system. Each substrate carrier is disposed in the deposition chamber and has at least one receptacle configured to receive a substrate. The substrate carriers are configured to hold substrates in a linear configuration. Each gas injector includes a port configured to supply a gas in a uniform distribution across one or more of the substrates. The heating system includes at least one heating element and a heating control module for uniformly controlling a temperature of the substrates. The system is suitable for high volume CVD processing of substrates. The narrow width of the deposition chamber enables a uniform distribution of precursor gases across the substrates along the length of the reaction chamber and permits a greater number of substrates to be processed in comparison to conventional deposition chambers.

Linear batch chemical vapor deposition system

Disclosed are an inline chemical vapor deposition method and system for fabricating a device. The method includes transporting a web or discrete substrate through a deposition chamber having a plurality of deposition modules. A buffer layer, a window layer and a transparent conductive layer are deposited onto the substrate during passage through a first deposition module, a second deposition module and a third deposition module, respectively. Advantageously, the steps for generating the buffer layer, window layer and transparent conductive layer are performed sequentially in a common vacuum environment of a single deposition chamber and the use of a conventional chemical bath deposition process to deposit the buffer layer is eliminated. The method is suitable for the manufacture of different types of devices including various types of solar cells such as copper indium gallium diselenide solar cells.

Method and system for inline chemical vapor deposition

Described are an apparatus and a method for cooling a web. The apparatus includes an inner cylinder having a void therein and configured for coupling to a gas source. The apparatus also includes an outer cylinder having an inner surface, an outer surface to support a web and apertures between the inner and outer surfaces. The outer cylinder rotates about the inner cylinder so that gas provided to the void of the inner cylinder flows through the apertures that are adjacent to the void and passes to the outer surface of the outer cylinder to increase the heat transfer between the web and the outer cylinder. The volume of gas introduced into the vacuum deposition chamber during a process run is thereby limited. Advantageously, the apparatus enables higher deposition rates and increased productivity.

Cooling apparatus for a web deposition system

Apparatus for cathodic vacuum-arc coating deposition. The apparatus includes a mixing chamber, at least one input duct projecting from a first end wall of the mixing chamber, and an output duct projecting from a second end wall of the mixing chamber. Coupled with each input duct is a plasma source adapted to discharge an ion flow of a coating material into the mixing chamber, which is subsequently directed to the output duct. A first solenoidal coil disposed about a side wall of the mixing chamber creates a first magnetic field inside the mixing chamber for steering the ion flow. A second solenoidal coil is disposed adjacent to the first end wall and aligned substantially coaxially with the output duct. The second solenoidal coil creates a second magnetic field inside the mixing chamber for steering the first ion flow. The electrical currents flow through the first and second solenoidal coils in opposite solenoidal directions.

Apparatus for cathodic vacuum-arc coating deposition

A system and method for uniform deposition of material layers on wafers in a rotating disk chemical vapor deposition reaction system is provided, wherein one or more substrates are rotated on a carrier about an axis while maintaining surfaces of the one or more substrates substantially perpendicular to the axis of rotation and facing in an upstream direction along the axis of rotation. During rotating a first gas is discharged in the downstream direction towards the one or more substrates from a first set of gas inlets. A second gas is discharged in the downstream direction towards the one or more substrates from at least one movable gas injector, and the at least one movable gas inlet is moved with a component of motion in a radial direction towards or away from the axis of rotation.

Movable injectors in rotating disc gas reactors

An atomic layer deposition system is described that includes a deposition chamber. A first and second reaction chamber are positioned in the deposition chamber and contain a first and a second reactant species, respectively. A monolayer of the first reactant species is deposited on a substrate passing through the first reaction chamber. A monolayer of the second reactant species is deposited on a substrate passing through the second reaction chamber. A transport mechanism transports a substrate in a path through the first reaction chamber and through the second reaction chamber, thereby depositing a film on the substrate by atomic layer deposition. The shape of the first and the second reaction chambers are chosen to achieve a constant exposure of the substrate to reactant species when the transport mechanism transports the substrate in the path through the respective reaction chambers at the constant transport rate.

Continuous flow deposition system

A substrate processing pallet has a top surface and a plurality of side surfaces. The top surface has at least one recess adapted to receive a substrate. The recess includes a support structure adapted to contact a portion of a substrate seated in the recess and a plurality of apertures each adapted to accommodate a lift pin. Lift pins can extend through the apertures initially to support the substrate and retract to deposit the substrate onto the support structure. A side surface includes a process positioning feature adapted to engage with a feature located in a process chamber to position the pallet. A side surface includes a positioning feature adapted to engage with an end effector alignment feature to position the pallet with respect to the end effector during transport. A side surface includes support features adapted to engage with end effector support features to support the pallet during transport.

Substrate processing pallet and related substrate processing method and machine

An acousto-optic tunable filter that includes a polarization beamsplitter, a multi-segment interaction region and a polarization beam combiner is described. The polarization beamsplitter generates a first and a second polarized optical signal. The multi-segment optical interaction region includes a first optical interaction region and a first acoustic wave generator that generates acoustic waves in the first optical interaction region. The multi-segment optical interaction region also includes a second optical interaction region that is non-collinear relative to the first optical interaction region and a second acoustic wave generator that generates acoustic waves in the second optical interaction region. Optical signals that are phase-matched to the acoustic waves are mode-converted in response to the acoustic waves. The acousto-optic tunable filter also includes a polarization beam combiner that generates both a mode-converted optical signal and a non-mode-converted optical signal.

Acousto-optic tunable filter with segmented acousto-optic interaction region

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Marblehead, MA, United States of America

Piero Sferlazzo