Evaporator

A solid precursor delivery assembly comprising:

• a container having upper and lower portions;
• four chambers defined within the container including an inlet chamber, an outlet chamber, and first and second precursor chambers, the first and second precursor chambers configured for holding precursor material within the container;
• three sintered frits fixedly coupled and sealed to an interior portion of the container, the three sintered frits defining at least part of the four chambers within the container, at least one of the sintered frits configured for retaining precursor material thereon within the first precursor chamber, and at least one of the sintered frits configured for retaining precursor material thereon within the second precursor chamber;
• an inlet coupled to the upper portion of the container for delivering carrier gas into the container;
• and
• an outlet coupled to the lower portion of the container for use in removing vapor product from the container comprising vaporized precursor material and carrier gas.

A method of recovering vaporized precursor material with a carrier gas in a multi-chamber solid precursor delivery assembly, the method comprising:

• delivering carrier gas to a multi-chamber solid precursor delivery assembly;
• retaining carrier gas within headspace of a first precursor chamber of the multi-chamber solid precursor delivery assembly generally above precursor material disposed within the first precursor chamber until a desired pressure differential exists across a first sintered frit of the multi-chamber solid precursor delivery assembly separating the first precursor chamber from a second precursor chamber, at which time the carrier gas and vaporized precursor material recovered by the carrier gas flows through the first sintered frit to the second precursor chamber;
• retaining the carrier gas within headspace of the second precursor chamber of the multi-chamber solid precursor delivery assembly generally above precursor material disposed within the second precursor chamber until a desired pressure differential exists across a second sintered frit of the multi-chamber solid precursor delivery assembly separating the second precursor chamber from a third chamber, at which time the carrier gas and vaporized precursor material recovered by the carrier gas flows through the second sintered frit to the third chamber;
• and
• removing the carrier gas and vaporized precursor material recovered by the carrier gas from the multi-chamber solid precursor delivery assembly.