Gas injection for de-agglomeration in particle coating reactor

A reactor for coating particles, comprising:

• a stationary vacuum chamber to hold particles in a particle bed to be coated;
• a paddle assembly including a rotatable drive shaft and one or more paddles in the vacuum chamber, the paddles connected to the drive shaft such that rotation of the drive shaft by a motor stirs the particles in the particle bed;
• a chemical delivery system including a gas injection assembly to a deliver a precursor or reactant gas and a purge gas into a lower portion of the vacuum chamber;
• at least one flow regulator to control a flow rate of the precursor or reactant gas and the purge gas;
• a controller configured to
• cause the chemical delivery system to inject the reactant or precursor gas into the lower portion of the vacuum chamber as the paddle assembly rotates to coat the particles;
• and
• cause the chemical delivery system and the at least one flow regulator to inject the reactant or precursor gas or the purge gas into the vacuum chamber at a sufficiently high velocity such that the reactant or precursor or purge gas de-agglomerates particles in the particle bed,
• wherein the particles substantially stay in the particle bed during the injecting of the reactant or precursor or purge gas through the lower portion of the vacuum chamber and during the rotating of the paddle assembly such that the one or more paddles stir the particles in the particle bed.