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US 10,894,233 B2Granted
Silicon carbide filter membrane and methods of use
AssigneeEntegris, Inc.
InventorsTroy Scoggins, Abuagela Rashed
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Described are silicon carbide filters for use with liquid metals such as liquid tin, as well as methods of using such a filter to remove particles from the liquid metal, and systems and processes that use the filtered liquid metal.
Claims19
A multi-layer porous silicon carbide filter membrane for filtering molten tin comprising:
- a fine membrane layer of fine porous silicon carbide having a fine pore size and a porosity in a range of from 15 to 27 percent, and
- a coarse membrane layer of coarse porous silicon carbide having a coarse pore size and a porosity in a range of from 15 to 22 percent, the coarse pore size being greater than the fine pore size and the fine membrane layer being upstream of the course membrane layer.
A method of processing molten tin, the method comprising:
- (a) providing a multi-layer porous silicon carbide filter membrane comprising:
- (i) a fine membrane layer of fine porous silicon carbide having a fine pore size and a porosity in a range of from 15 to 27 percent, and
- (ii) a coarse membrane layer of coarse porous silicon carbide having a coarse pore size and a porosity in a range of from 15 to 22 percent such that the pore size of the coarse porous silicon carbide is greater than the pore size of the fine porous silicon carbide and the fine membrane layer is upstream of the coarse membrane layer;
- (b) passing the liquid metal through the multi-layer porous silicon carbide filter membrane by first passing the liquid metal through the fine membrane layer;
- and
- (c) after passing the liquid metal through the fine membrane, passing the liquid metal through the coarse membrane layer.
3 more elements
A method of generating EUV comprising
- (a) providing a multi-layer porous silicon carbide filter membrane comprising:
- (i) a fine membrane layer of fine porous silicon carbide having a fine pore size and a porosity in a range of from 15 to 27 percent, and
- (ii) a coarse membrane layer of coarse porous silicon carbide having a coarse pore size and a porosity in a range of from 15 to 22 percent such that the pore size of the coarse porous silicon carbide is greater than the pore size of the fine porous silicon carbide and the fine membrane layer is upstream of the coarse membrane layer;
- (b) passing liquid tin through the multi-layer porous silicon carbide filter membrane by first passing the liquid tin through the fine membrane layer;
- (c) after passing the liquid tin through the fine membrane, passing the liquid tin through the coarse membrane layer;
- (d) forming the liquid tin into a droplet;
- and
- (e) irradiating the liquid tin to generate extreme ultraviolet radiation.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.