Gas treatment apparatus and method

US4838983A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• EMCORE CORPORATION · US

Inventors

• Norman E. Schumaker · Austin, US
• Richard A. Stall · Montgomery, US
• Craig R. Nelson · Melbourne, US
• Wilfried Wagner · Hamburg, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 18, 1988
• Grant date: Jun 13, 1989
• Expiry date: Mar 18, 2008

Classification

• Technology area (CPC C): Chemistry; Metallurgy
• CPC primary: C30B25/14
• WIPO field: Surface technology, coating
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

Substrates such as semiconductor wafers are treated with a gas by advancing the substrate along a path, preferably a circular path through the gas while maintaining a face of the substrate transverse, preferably oblique, to the path so taht the gas contacts be exposed from the face of the substrate. Preferably, a plurality of substrates are treated simultaneously, and the substrates serve as vanes to impel the gas into rotational motion, thereby pumping the gas through the process chamber. Preferably, the substrates are carried on susceptors having generally planar faces, the susceptors also serving as vanes impelling the gas into rotational motion. The gas may be a depositing gas for forming epitaxial layers on the faces of the substrates, or an etching gas.