Chemical vapor deposition system

Abstract

A chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system for depositing a material selectively on a part of a substrate comprises a reaction chamber in which a CVD process is performed, a substrate holder and substrate heater provided within the reaction chamber, a gas inlet fixture provided on the reaction chamber for introducing one or more CVD source gases into the reaction chamber, and a reactant distribution fixture provided on the gas inlet fixture within the reaction chamber for controlling distribution of the reactant species in the reaction chamber, wherein the reactant distribution fixture defines a subspace surrounding the substrate within the space of the reaction chamber such that the subspace has a dimension, measured in a direction generally perpendicular to the surface of the substrate such that the dimension is at least less than one half of the mean free path of the reactant species realized inside the space of the reaction chamber during the CVD process and such that an opening is formed for communicating the subspace inside the reaction distribution means with the rest of the space of the reaction chamber for freely passing product species formed as a result of the chemical reaction at the surface of the substrate.