Back to results
US 2014/0090592 A1Published application
Continuous sapphire growth
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsDale N. Memering, Scott A. Myers
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods for continuous sapphire growth are disclosed. One embodiment may take the form of a method including feeding a base material into a crucible located within a growth chamber, heating the crucible to melt the base material and initiating crystalline growth in the melted base material to create a crystal structure. Additionally, the method includes pulling the crystal structure away from crucible and feeding the crystal structure out of the growth chamber.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- feeding a base material into a crucible located within a growth chamber;
- heating the crucible to melt the base material;
- initiating crystalline growth in the melted base material to create a crystal structure;
- pulling the crystal structure away from crucible;
- and
- feeding the crystal structure out of the growth chamber.
3 more elements
A system for continuous sapphire growth comprising:
- a vertical growth chamber;
- a crucible positioned within the growth chamber, the crucible comprising a die set and configured to hold molten alumina;
- a heater configured to heat the crucible;
- a feeding system for continuously feeding alumina into the crucible;
- and
- a pulling system configured to contact a seed crystal with molten alumina at the top of the die set and pull a crystal ribbon upwardly and out of the growth chamber.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.