High performance gas handling and injection system for ultrahigh vacuum tools

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Many semiconductor processes require the injection of gases in a vacuum chamber in a controlled manner. Because of the nature of the semiconductor industry, these process must deliver highly uniform and reproducible products with a high level of success. To this day, the technology surrounding the injection of gas in vacuum remains crude. While highly uniform gas fluxes are routinely generated in the vacuum chambers, the injector are extremely wasteful, using merely a few percent of the injected gas in the process and sending the rest to waste, generating unwanted costs for chemicals, abatement, disposal and maintenance. With several application in strong expansion, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) for solid-state lighting and photovoltaic cells and panels, the market for new tools using the injection of gas in vacuum has maintained double digit annual rate of growth and the analysts forecast a sustained growth in the coming years. The market is therefore ripe for a new technology of gas management and injection with significant improvements in control, costs, and gas usage efficiency.