Deposition of reactive metals with protection layer for high volume manufacturing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11833580-B2
Application number	US-202117533236-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 23, 2021
Priority date	Aug 30, 2019
Publication date	Dec 5, 2023
Grant date	Dec 5, 2023

Abstract

A method and apparatus for manufacturing a flexible layer stack, and to a flexible layer stack. Implementations of the present disclosure particularly relate to a method and apparatus for coating flexible substrates with a low melting temperature metal or metal alloy. In one implementation, a method is provided. The method includes delivering a transfer liquid to a quenching surface of a rotating casting drum. The method further includes forming a material layer stack over the rotating casting drum by delivering a molten metal or molten metal alloy toward the quenching surface of the rotating casting drum. The method further includes transferring the material layer stack from the rotating casting drum to a continuous flexible substrate, wherein the quenching surface of the rotating casting drum is cooled to a temperature at which the layers of the material layer stack solidify.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a pair of rotatable casting drums positioned on opposite sides of a travel path of a continuous flexible substrate, wherein each rotatable casting drum comprises a curved quench surface;
a peeling layer deposition source arrangement operable to deliver a transfer liquid to the curved quench surface of the casting drum; and
a material layer stack deposition source arrangement comprising:
a first deposition source arrangement positioned to deposit a surface protection film on the curved quench surface of each rotatable casting drum; and
a second deposition source arrangement positioned to deposit a molten metal film or a molten metal alloy film on the curved quench surface of each rotatable casting drum; and
a third layer deposition source arrangement positioned to deposit a third layer on the curved quench surface of each rotatable casting drum.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the third layer is an anode film.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first deposition source arrangement and the second deposition source arrangement each independently comprises one or more deposition sources selected from a sputtering source, a thermal evaporation source, an e-beam evaporation source, a slot-die coating source, a casting nozzle coating source, a roller coating source, a Meyer rod coating source, a planar flow melt-spin source, a subsonic spray source, an electrostatic spray source, a gas pressure spray source, a thermal spray source, and/or a plasma spray source.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the pair of rotatable casting drums are each operable to be independently heated or cooled.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the surface protection film is selected from LiF, BiTe 3 , Cu, Sn, LiNO 3 , sulfide, or a combination thereof.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the continuous flexible substrate is a copper substrate and the molten metal is lithium.

7. An apparatus, comprising:
an unwinding module comprising an unwinding roller operable to transport a continuous flexible substrate along a travel path of the continuous flexible substrate;
a process module comprising:
a pair of rotatable casting drums positioned on opposite sides of the travel path of the continuous flexible substrate, wherein each rotatable casting drum comprises a curved quench surface;
a peeling layer deposition source arrangement operable to deliver a transfer liquid to the curved quench surface of the casting drum; and
a deposition source arrangement operable to form a material layer stack, the deposition source arrangement comprising:
a first layer deposition source arrangement positioned to deposit a first layer on the transfer liquid;
a second layer deposition source arrangement positioned to deposit a second layer on the first layer, wherein at least one of the first layer or the second layer comprises a molten metal film or a molten metal alloy film; and
a third layer deposition source arrangement positioned to deposit a third layer on the second layer; and

a winding module comprising a winding roller operable to receive the continuous flexible substrate having the material layer stack deposited thereon.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , further comprising a plurality of plates positioned to define the unwinding module, the processing module, and the unwinding module, wherein each plate has a hole through which the continuous flexible substrate is transported along the travel path.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 , further comprising a tension reel positioned between the unwinding roller and the winding roller along the travel path of the continuous flexible substrate, wherein the tension reel is operable to guide the flexible substrate, tension the continuous flexible substrate, decharge the continuous flexible substrate, heat the continuous flexible substrate, or cool the continuous flexible substrate.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the unwinding module, the winding module, and the process module each comprises a separate chamber, and the process module is a vacuum chamber.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein each of the pair of rotatable casting drums, the unwinding roller, and the winding roller is operable to be independently heated or cooled.

12. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the transfer liquid forms a peeling layer on the quenching surface of the rotating casting drum, wherein the first layer is a surface protection film, wherein the second layer is a molten metal or molten metal alloy layer, and wherein the third layer is an anode film.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the anode film is constructed from graphite, silicon, silicon-containing graphite, lithium metal, lithium metal foil, or a lithium alloy foil.

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Herle Subramanya P

Classifications

• B22D11/0611 Primary

  formed by a single casting wheel, e.g. for casting amorphous metal strips or wires · CPC title

• B22D11/001

  of specific alloys · CPC title

• B22D11/144 Primary

  with a rotating mould · CPC title

• H01M4/0409

  by a doctor blade method, slip-casting or roller coating · CPC title

• H01M4/134

  Electrodes based on metals, Si or alloys · CPC title