System architecture and method for solar panel formation
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsShinichi Kurita, Takako Takehara, Suhail Anwar
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for forming solar panels from n-doped silicon, p-doped silicon, intrinsic amorphous silicon, and intrinsic microcrystalline silicon using a cluster tool is disclosed. The cluster tool comprises at least one load lock chamber and at least one transfer chamber. When multiple clusters are used, at least one buffer chamber may be present between the clusters. A plurality of processing chambers are attached to the transfer chamber. As few as five and as many as thirteen processing chambers can be present.
Claims20
A cluster tool arrangement, comprising:
- at least one transfer chamber;
- at least one load lock chamber coupled to the at least one transfer chamber;
- at least six intrinsic silicon deposition chambers coupled to the at least one transfer chamber, wherein each of the at least six intrinsic silicon deposition chambers are configured to deposit both an intrinsic silicon layer and an n-doped silicon layer;
- and
- a substrate transfer robot disposed in the at least one transfer chamber.
A cluster tool arrangement, comprising:
- one or two load lock chambers coupled to a processing cluster environment;
- one p-doped silicon deposition chamber coupled to the processing cluster environment;
- six or seven intrinsic silicon deposition chambers coupled to the processing cluster environment, wherein the six or seven intrinsic silicon deposition chambers are configured to deposit both an intrinsic silicon layer and an n-doped silicon layer;
- and
- a vacuum robot disposed in the processing cluster environment.
A method for forming a PIN structure, comprising:
- transferring a substrate to a cluster tool comprising:
- at least one transfer chamber;
- at least one load lock chamber coupled to the at least one transfer chamber;
- at least six intrinsic silicon deposition chambers coupled to the at least one transfer chamber;
- and
- a substrate transfer robot disposed in the at least one transfer chamber;
- and
- depositing a first intrinsic silicon layer and a first n-doped silicon layer on the p-doped silicon layer on the substrate in one of the at least six intrinsic silicon deposition chambers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.