Reaction chamber of an epitaxial reactor and reactor that uses said chamber

{
  "publication_number": "US9382642B2",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "B2",
  "title": "Reaction chamber of an epitaxial reactor and reactor that uses said chamber",
  "abstract": "The present invention relates to a reaction chamber of an epitaxial reactor that essentially consists of a quartz piece; the quartz piece comprises a quartz piece portion (1) having an internal cavity (2) defined by walls (1 A, 1 B, 1 C, 1 D); the cavity (2) comprises a reaction and deposition zone (3) of the epitaxial reactor; the zone (3) is adapted to house a susceptor (4) to be heated therein; the reaction chamber also comprises a quartz component (5) arranged close to said walls (1 A, 1 B, 1 C, 1 D) in such a manner as to form a counterwall and to be a wall of said zone (3).",
  "claims": [
    "1. A cold-wall epitaxial reactor comprising: an induction heater and at least one reaction chamber arranged horizontally and housing a susceptor that is disk-shaped, said susceptor being associated with said induction heater; said at least one reaction chamber essentially consisting of a quartz piece, wherein said quartz piece comprises a quartz piece portion having an internal cavity defined by walls and an outside, wherein said internal cavity comprises a reaction and deposition zone of the epitaxial reactor, wherein said reaction and deposition zone houses said susceptor to be heated therein, wherein a quartz component is arranged close to said walls in such a manner as to form a counterwall and to be a wall of said reaction and deposition zone, said walls comprising an upper wall and a lower wall, wherein in that said quartz component essentially consists of a U-shaped quartz slab arranged upside down between said susceptor and said upper wall of said internal cavity of said at least one reaction chamber, and wherein said quartz component rests on said lower wall of the internal cavity of said at least one reaction chamber, whereby a temperature of an internal surface of said quartz component is controlled; and whereby heat flows from said reaction and deposition zone towards said outside in a controlled manner.",
    "2. The cold-wall epitaxial reactor of claim 1, wherein said quartz component is arranged in such a manner as to form a counterwall for two or three or four of said walls.",
    "3. The cold-wall epitaxial reactor of claim 1, wherein at least one interspace having a uniform or variable width is defined between said quartz component and said walls.",
    "4. The cold-wall epitaxial reactor of claim 3, wherein two or three or four interspaces, are defined between said quartz component and said walls, the widths of said interspaces being preferably uniform and equal to one another.",
    "5. The cold-wall epitaxial reactor of claim 1, wherein said quartz component is coated with a reflective layer on either an interior side or an exterior side.",
    "6. The cold-wall epitaxial reactor of claim 1, wherein at least one interspace is defined between said quartz component and said walls wherein said at least one reaction chamber is associated with a feed adapted to carry at least one fluid flow within said interspace.",
    "7. The cold-wall epitaxial reactor of claim 6, wherein the velocity and/or flow rate and/or direction and/or composition of said at least one fluid flow changes before and/or during and/or after a growth process.",
    "8. The cold-wall epitaxial reactor of claim 1, wherein said quartz component is arranged in such a manner as to form a counterwall for only three of said walls.",
    "9. The cold-wall epitaxial reactor of claim 1, wherein said quartz component rests on only one of said walls.",
    "10. The cold-wall epitaxial reactor of claim 1, wherein said quartz component essentially consists of a straight or shaped profiled quartz slab.",
    "11. The cold-wall epitaxial reactor of claim 3, wherein only three interspaces are defined between said quartz component and said walls, the widths of said three interspaces being preferably uniform and equal to one another.",
    "12. The cold-wall epitaxial reactor of claim 1, wherein said quartz component is coated with a reflective layer on a side which is closer to said walls.",
    "13. The cold-wall epitaxial reactor of claim 1, being arranged so that a gaseous fluid can flow in an interspace between said quartz component and said walls, said walls have exteriors and a liquid fluid can flow on the exteriors of said walls.",
    "14. The cold-wall epitaxial reactor of claim 1, being arranged to deposit monocrystalline silicon on silicon substrates at temperatures between 850° C. and 1,250° C.",
    "15. The cold-wall epitaxial reactor of claim 1, being arranged so that, during epitaxial growth processes, said quartz piece portion does not exceed 400-600° C. and is much colder than said susceptor.",
    "16. The cold-wall epitaxial reactor of claim 1, wherein said quartz component consists of three straight slabs joined together, a first slab is arranged horizontally, a second slab is arranged vertically, and a third slab is arranged vertically."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "This application is being filed in the United States for the national phase of international application number PCT/IB2010/051666 filed on 16 Apr. 2010 (publication number WO 2010/119430 A1), claiming priority on prior application MI2009A000629 filed in Italy on 17 Apr. 2009, the contents of each being hereby incorporated herein by reference.\n\nThe present invention relates to a reaction chamber of an epitaxial reactor and to a reactor that uses said chamber.\n\nEpitaxial reactors are machines used to deposit smooth and uniform monocrystalline or polycrystalline layers of materials on substrates; the substrates thus treated are used to produce electric devices (such as solar cells), electronic devices (such as MOSFETs and LEDs) and microelectronic devices (such as integrated circuits). Therefore, the quality of the layer deposited, in terms of defectiveness, uniform thickness and uniform resistivity, is extremely important and subject to increasingly strict requirements.\n\nSubstrates are very thin disks (typically in the interval from 100 μm to 1,500 μm) and with greatly variable diameter (typically in the interval from 1″=25 mm to 18″=450 mm), and can be made, for example, of silicon [SI], silicon carbide [SiC], germanium [Ge], gallium arsenide [GaAs], aluminium oxide or “sapphire” [Al 2 O 3], gallium nitride[GaN].\n\nThe materials deposited are typically conductor and semiconductor materials, such as silicon [Si], silicon carbide [SiC], germanium [Ge], gallium arsenide [GaAs], aluminium nitride [AlN], gallium nitride [GaN].",
  "cpc": [
    "C30B 25/08",
    "C23C 16/46",
    "C30B 25/10",
    "C30B 29/06",
    "C30B 29/08",
    "C30B 29/36",
    "C30B 29/403",
    "C30B 29/406",
    "C30B 35/00"
  ],
  "ipc": [
    "B01D 9/00",
    "C23C 16/46",
    "C30B 25/08",
    "C30B 25/10",
    "C30B 29/06",
    "C30B 29/08",
    "C30B 29/36",
    "C30B 29/40",
    "C30B 35/00"
  ],
  "assignees": [
    "LPE SpA"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "Srinivas Yarlagadda",
    "Natale Speciale",
    "Franco Preti",
    "Mario Preti"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2010-04-16",
  "publication_date": "2016-07-05",
  "grant_date": "2016-07-05",
  "priority_date": "2009-04-17",
  "application_number": "US-201013259818-A",
  "family_id": "41226172",
  "cited_by_count": 30,
  "citations": [
    "EP0147967A2",
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    "JPH04186825A",
    "US5256060A",
    "US5221356A",
    "US5441570A",
    "WO1996010659A2",
    "WO1997006288A1",
    "US6331212B1",
    "CN1430789A",
    "US7285228B2",
    "US8497587B2"
  ]
}