Apparatus for depositing a thin layer of polymer resist on a substrate

• Main Authors: Kane Peter E, Tarasov Vladimir S, Sachs Emanuel M, Gates Holly G, Danner Guy M, Madden Peter G
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 14.11.2017
• Subjects: APPARATUS SPECIALLY ADAPTED THEREFOR; APPLYING LIQUIDS OR OTHER FLUENT MATERIALS TO SURFACES, IN GENERAL; ATOMISING APPARATUS; BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY; MANUFACTURE OR TREATMENT OF NANOSTRUCTURES; MATERIALS THEREFOR; MEASUREMENT OR ANALYSIS OF NANOSTRUCTURES; NANOTECHNOLOGY; NOZZLES; ORIGINALS THEREFOR; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHOTOGRAPHY; PHOTOMECHANICAL PRODUCTION OF TEXTURED OR PATTERNED SURFACES,e.g. FOR PRINTING, FOR PROCESSING OF SEMICONDUCTORDEVICES; PHYSICS; PROCESSES FOR APPLYING LIQUIDS OR OTHER FLUENT MATERIALS TOSURFACES, IN GENERAL; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; SPECIFIC USES OR APPLICATIONS OF NANOSTRUCTURES; SPRAYING APPARATUS; SPRAYING OR ATOMISING IN GENERAL; TRANSPORTING

The present inventions relate to the formation of a thin polymer film on a substrate. Apparatus is described for transforming a solid polymer resist into an aerosol of small particles, electrostatically charging and depositing the particles onto a substrate, and flowing the particles into a continuous layer. Apparatus is further described for transforming solid resist into an aerosol of small particles by heating the resist to form a low viscosity liquid such as is compatible with nebulization and applying the techniques of jet or impact nebulization and aerosol particle sizing to form the aerosol. A method is further described of using ionized gas to confer charge onto the aerosol particles and using a progression of charging devices establish an electric field directing the flow of charged particles to the substrate. The progression of charging devices and associated apparatus results in high collection efficiency for the aerosol particles.