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:
Sep. 14, 2004
Filed:
Aug. 06, 2002
Apostolos Voutsas, Portland, OR (US);
Yukihiko Nakata, Vancouver, WA (US);
Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc., Camas, WA (US);
Abstract
A method of physical vapor deposition includes selecting a target material; mixing at least two gases to form a sputtering gas mixture, wherein a first sputtering gas is helium and a second sputtering gas is taken from the gases consisting of neon, argon krypton, xenon and radon; forming a plasma in the sputtering gas mixture atmosphere to sputter atoms from the target material to the substrate thereby forming a layer of target material on the substrate; and annealing the substrate and the deposited layer thereon. An improved physical vapor deposition vacuum chamber includes a target held in a target holder, a substrate held in a substrate holder, a plasma arc generator, and heating rods. A sputtering gas feed system is provided for introducing a mixture of sputtering gases into the chamber; as is a vacuum mechanism comprising at least one turbomolecular pump for evacuating the chamber to a pressure of less than 16 mTorr during deposition. The method and apparatus are particularly suited for forming thin film transistors and liquid crystal displays having thin film transistors therein.