Apparatus for depositing materials on stacked semiconductor wafers

An apparatus for depositing materials onto a plurality of semiconductor wafers, comprising:

• a plurality of plates, each having first and second major surfaces and a first opening through such plate, the plates being positioned with their major surfaces adjacent to one another, the first surface of each plate being in contact with the second surface of each adjacent plate and the first openings in each of the plates being aligned with one another to form a first common passageway;
• a pocket located in the first surface of each plate for holding a wafer therein, the pocket being covered by the second surface of the adjacent plate;
• an input gate located in the first surface of each plate, the gate being covered by the second surface of the adjacent plate, the gate extending from the water pocket to the first common passageway;
• a reservoir positioned adjacent to the plates for holding the materials, such reservoir having an aperture, the aperture being out of alignment with the first common passageway to initially prevent communication from the reservoir to the first passageway;
• and
• means to move the reservoir to align the aperture in the reservoir with the first common passageway to permit the material to flow through the common passageway and onto the wafers.

An apparatus for depositing liquid-phase epitaxial material onto a plurality of semiconductor wafers comprising:

• a plurality of wafer pockets located along a common vertical passageway, the pockets holding the wafers in communication with the passageway;
• a reservoir for holding the material, said reservoir having a bottom plate with an aperture therein and being moveable with respect to an upper end of the passageway to permit moving said aperture into and out of alignment with said end of the passageway;
• and
• means for blocking the aperture when the aperture is out of alignment with the upper end of the passageway and for unblocking said aperture in response to a movement of said reservoir into at least partial alignment with said upper end of the common passageway, whereby said material is permitted to flow under the force of gravity through said aperture into said common passageway and onto the wafers held in the wafer pockets.