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US 8,557,093 B2Granted
Deposition system with electrically isolated pallet and anode assemblies
AssigneeSunPower Corporation
InventorsPeter Cousins, Hsin-Chiao Luan, Thomas Pass, John Ferrer, Rex Gallardo, Stephen F. Meyer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for substrate deposition. The system includes a wafer pallet and an anode. The wafer pallet has a bottom and a top. The top of the wafer pallet is configured to hold a substrate wafer. The anode has a substantially fixed position relative to the wafer pallet and is configured to move with the wafer pallet through the deposition chamber. The anode is electrically isolated from the substrate wafer.
Claims10
A pass-through deposition system, comprising:
- a wafer pallet having a body with a bottom surface and a top surface, the top surface of the body of the wafer pallet to hold a substrate wafer in direct contact with a portion of the body of the wafer pallet to maintain the substrate wafer at substantially the same electrical potential as the wafer pallet, wherein the wafer pallet is for moving with the substrate wafer through the pass-through deposition system;
- and an anode having a substantially fixed position relative to the wafer pallet so that the anode is configured to move with the wafer pallet, wherein the anode is electrically isolated from the portion of the body of the wafer pallet that is to be in direct contact with the substrate wafer;
- and
- wherein the wafer pallet comprises an anode opening from the bottom to the top of the wafer pallet, wherein the anode opening is dimensioned to allow the anode to pass through the anode opening without touching the wafer pallet;
- and
- wherein the anode comprises an electrically conductive post and an electrically conductive bar, the electrically conductive bar coupled to the electrically conductive post, wherein the electrically conductive bar is not shielded from a deposition source;
- and
- wherein the wafer pallet further comprises an anode channel dimensioned to allow the electrically conductive bar to at least partially recess into the top of the wafer pallet, wherein the anode channel comprises a sidewall to maintain a substantially consistent air gap between the electrically conductive bar and post of the anode and the sidewall of the anode channel.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.