Technique for controlling temperature uniformity in crystal growth apparatus
AssigneeGTAT Corporation
InventorsFrederick Schmid, Cody Riopel, Hui Zhang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sapphire crystal growth apparatus is provided that includes a chamber, a hot zone and a muffle. More specifically, the hot zone is disposed within the chamber and includes at least one heating system, at least one heat removal system, and a crucible containing feedstock. Additionally, a muffle that surrounds at least two sides of the crucible is also provided to ensure uniform temperature distribution through the feedstock during crystal growth to allow the crystalline material to be grown with a square or rectangular shaped cross section.
Claims28
A method of producing a crystalline material comprising:
- providing a crystal growth apparatus comprising a chamber, and a hot zone within the chamber, the hot zone comprising at least one heating system, at least one heat removal system, a crucible containing at least solid feedstock, and a muffle surrounding the crucible;
- heating the solid feedstock in the crucible with the heating system to form a liquid feedstock melt;
- uniformly applying heat from the heat zone to the feedstock from top to bottom through the muffle to control the temperature uniformity being applied to the solid feedstock;
- and
- cooling the heated feedstock to produce a crystalline material.
A crystal growth apparatus comprising
- a chamber;
- a hot zone within the chamber comprising at least one heating system, at least one heat removal system, and a crucible containing at least solid alumina, the heat removal system comprising a heat exchanger positioned beneath the crucible;
- and
- a muffle surrounding at least two sides of the crucible.
22 The crystal growth apparatus of claim 13, wherein the crystal growth apparatus is a sapphire crystal growth apparatus.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.