Evaporator for effective surface area evaporation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2023048728-A1
Application number	US-202217881368-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 4, 2022
Priority date	Aug 12, 2021
Publication date	Feb 16, 2023
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method and apparatus for thermal evaporation are provided. The thermal evaporator includes a flat crucible design, which provides an increased surface area for evaporation of the material to be deposited relative to conventional designs. The increased surface area for evaporation means that the more vapor of the evaporated material can be produced, which increases pressure inside the evaporator body leading to increased flow of the evaporated material out of the nozzles. The flat crucible can be attached to an evaporator body of the thermal evaporator. The flat crucible can be integrated within the evaporator body. The evaporator body can include a plurality of longitudinal grooves, which increase the surface area of the evaporator body. The thermal evaporator can include a plurality of baffles which divide the thermal evaporator into separate compartments.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An evaporation assembly, comprising:
a flat crucible for holding a material to be evaporated, the flat crucible comprising a rectangular body defining an interior region for holding the material to be evaporated, the rectangular body having an opening through which the evaporated material can escape, the rectangular body having a length dimension and a width dimension defining an evaporation surface area; and an evaporator body fluidly coupled with the rectangular body, the evaporator body comprising a top surface having a plurality of linear arrays of nozzles each nozzle having an opening defined by a diameter, wherein a total area of the openings defines a nozzle opening surface area and the evaporation surface area is greater than the nozzle opening surface area.

2 . The evaporation assembly of claim 1 , wherein an area ratio of the evaporation surface area to the nozzle opening surface area is from about 100 to about 330.

3 . The evaporation assembly of claim 1 , wherein the top surface of the evaporator body is a planar surface.

4 . The evaporation assembly of claim 1 , wherein the top surface of the evaporator body has a zig-zag pattern defining longitudinal grooves.

5 . The evaporation assembly of claim 4 , wherein opposing sidewalls of the evaporator body have a zig-zag pattern defining longitudinal grooves.

6 . The evaporation assembly of claim 1 , wherein the evaporator body comprises a baffle region having a plurality of baffle plates, each baffle plate extending from a first sidewall of the evaporator body to a second sidewall of the evaporator body, wherein the first sidewall is opposite the second sidewall.

7 . The evaporation assembly of claim 6 , wherein the evaporator body further comprises a heater region positioned below the baffle region, the heater region comprising a plurality of tubular heaters, the evaporator body having a bottom surface that defines an opening which corresponds with the opening in the rectangular body.

8 . The evaporation assembly of claim 7 , further comprising a plurality of baffles dividing the rectangular body into separate compartments.

9 . The evaporation assembly of claim 8 , wherein each baffle extends from a bottom surface of the rectangular body through the opening into the heater region between adjacent tubular heaters.

10 . The evaporation assembly of claim 8 , wherein each compartment of the separate compartments corresponds to a linear array of nozzles of the plurality of linear arrays of nozzles.

11 . The evaporation assembly of claim 1 , further comprising a heat source in thermal contact with the evaporator body.

12 . An evaporation assembly, comprising:
a flat crucible for holding a material to be evaporated, the flat crucible comprising:
a rectangular body having a length and width dimension, the rectangular body comprising:
a top surface having an opening through which evaporated material can escape, the rectangular body having a length dimension and a width dimension defining an evaporation surface area;
a bottom surface opposite the top surface;
a first pair of opposing sidewalls extending upward from and perpendicular to the bottom surface;
a second pair of opposing sidewalls extending upward from and perpendicular to the bottom surface, the bottom surface, the first pair of opposing sidewalls, and the second pair of opposing sidewalls defining an interior region for holding the material to be evaporated; and

an evaporator body fluidly coupled with the rectangular body and having a length and width dimension, the evaporator body comprising:
a heater region having a plurality of heating rods positioned therein; and
a baffle region positioned above the heater region, the baffle region comprising:
a plurality of linear arrays of nozzles for delivering the evaporated material, each nozzle having an opening defined by a diameter, wherein a total area of the openings defines a nozzle opening surface area and the evaporation surface area is greater than the nozzle opening surface area.

13 . The evaporation assembly of claim 12 , wherein an area ratio of the evaporation surface area to the nozzle opening surface area is from about 100 to about 330.

14 . The evaporation assembly of claim 12 , wherein:
the top surface of the evaporator body is a planar surface; the top surface of the evaporator body has a zig-zag pattern defining longitudinal grooves; or a combination thereof.

15 . The evaporation assembly of claim 12 , further comprising a plurality of baffles extending along the length dimension of the rectangular body and dividing the rectangular body into separate compartments.

16 . A thermal evaporator, comprising:
an evaporator body having a length and width dimension, the evaporator body comprising:
a heater region having a plurality of heating rods positioned therein;
a baffle region positioned above the heater region, the baffle region comprising:
a plurality of linear arrays of nozzles for delivering evaporated material, each nozzle having an opening defined by a diameter; and

a crucible region positioned below the heater region, the crucible region designed to hold the material to be evaporated, wherein the length dimension and the width dimension define an evaporation surface area and a total area of the openings defines a nozzle opening surface area and the evaporation surface area is greater than the nozzle opening surface area.

17 . The thermal evaporator of claim 16 , wherein an area ratio of the evaporation surface area to the nozzle opening surface area is from about 100 to about 330.

18 . The thermal evaporator of claim 16 , wherein a top surface of the evaporator body is a planar surface.

19 . The thermal evaporator of claim 16 , wherein a top surface of the evaporator body has a zig-zag pattern defining longitudinal grooves.

20 . The thermal evaporator of claim 19 , wherein opposing sidewalls of the evaporator body have a zig-zag pattern defining longitudinal grooves.

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Kundu Sambhu
• Ramachandrappa Prasannakalleshwara Buddappa
• Lim Vicente M
• Herle Subramanya P
• Sivaramakrishnan Visweswaren

Classifications

• H01M4/0423

  Physical vapour deposition · CPC title

• C23C14/243 Primary

  Crucibles for source material (C23C14/28, C23C14/30 take precedence) · CPC title

• C23C14/16

  on metallic substrates or on substrates of boron or silicon · CPC title

• C23C14/562

  for coating elongated substrates · CPC title

• C23C14/26 Primary

  by resistance or inductive heating of the source · CPC title