The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 29, 2000
Filed:
May. 14, 1998
David Francis Lupton, Gelnhausen, DE;
Jorg Schielke, Bruchkobel, DE;
Marek Gorywoda, Hanau, DE;
Bernard Serole, Peyrins, FR;
Friedhold Scholz, Rodenbach, DE;
W.C. Heraeus GmbH & Co. KG, , DE;
Abstract
A process for making a crystalline solid-solution powder which involves reacting at least two reactants in a plasma arc of a plasma chamber and blast-cooling the resultant product in a high velocity gas stream to form the powder. The first reactant is a molten metal alloy and the second reactant is a gas. The reaction is carried out in a plasma arc and the products rapidly cooled by a gas stream acting at the outlet opening of the plasma chamber. The crystalline solid-solution powder formed by the process has a low electrical resistivity. If an indium-tin alloy is used as the first reactant and oxygen as the second reactant, there is obtained an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) crystalline solid-solution powder which, when compacted to 40% of its theoretical density, has an electrical resistivity in the range of about 2 .OMEGA.cm. This ITO crystalline solid-solution powder is particularly suitable for preparing an ITO target, with high electrical conductivity and thus high achievable sputtering rates.