Molten liquid transport for tunable vaporization in ion sources
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsCraig R. Chaney, Graham Wright
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ion source with a crucible is disclosed. In some embodiments, the crucible contains a solid dopant material, such as a metal. A porous wicking tip is disposed in the crucible in contact with the solid dopant material. The porous wicking tip may be a tube with one or more interior conduits. Alternatively, the porous tip may be two concentric cylinders with a plurality of rods disposed in the annular ring between the two cylinders. Alternatively, the porous tip may be one or more foil layers wound together. In each of these embodiments, the wicking tip can be used to control the flow rate of molten dopant material to the arc chamber.
Claims19
An apparatus for holding dopant material in an ion source, comprising:
- a crucible;
- and
- a wicking tip disposed in the crucible, wherein the wicking tip comprises:
- a body having one or more internal conduits;
- one or more openings allowing the one or more internal conduits to be in communication with an exterior of the body and an interior of the crucible;
- and
- a wicking cavity disposed at a front end of the wicking tip, wherein the one or more internal conduits flow into the wicking cavity.
An apparatus for holding dopant material in an ion source, comprising:
- a crucible;
- and
- a wicking tip disposed in the crucible, wherein the wicking tip comprises:
- a solid inner cylinder disposed in a hollow outer cylinder to form an annular ring;
- and
- a plurality of rods disposed in the annular ring.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.