Patents by Inventor James N. Highfill

James N. Highfill has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9682495
    Abstract: A method of producing a sapphire product from a suitable precursor material is disclosed. The method comprising the steps of placing a sapphire product precursor on a support apparatus of a crystalline material processing assembly further comprising at least one cutting tool and two or more x-ray module fixedly positioned around the product precursor. The support apparatus can be tilted and rotated in order to align the crystalline plane orientations to a fixed cutting direction, and the sapphire product can be produced by cutting in that direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2017
    Assignee: GTAT Corporation
    Inventors: James N. Highfill, Scott Huard
  • Patent number: 9051659
    Abstract: A doped silicon single crystal having a resistivity variation along a longitudinal and/or radial axis of less than 10% and a method of preparing one or a sequential series of doped silicon crystals is disclosed. The method includes providing a melt material comprising silicon into a continuous Czochralski crystal growth apparatus, delivering a dopant, such as gallium, indium, or aluminum, to the melt material, providing a seed crystal into the melt material when the melt material is in molten form, and growing a doped silicon single crystal by withdrawing the seed crystal from the melt material. Additional melt material is provided to the apparatus during the growing step. A doping model for calculating the amount of dopant to be delivered into the melt material during one or more doping events, methods for delivering the dopant, and vessels and containers used to deliver the dopant are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2015
    Assignee: GTAT IP HOLDING
    Inventors: John P. DeLuca, Frank S. Delk, II, Bayard K. Johnson, William L. Luter, Neil D. Middendorf, Dick S. Williams, Nels Patrick Ostrom, James N. Highfill
  • Publication number: 20150090245
    Abstract: A method of producing a sapphire product from a suitable precursor material is disclosed. The method comprising the steps of placing a sapphire product precursor on a support apparatus of a crystalline material processing assembly further comprising at least one cutting tool and two or more x-ray module fixedly positioned around the product precursor. The support apparatus can be tilted and rotated in order to align the crystalline plane orientations to a fixed cutting direction, and the sapphire product can be produced by cutting in that direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 17, 2014
    Publication date: April 2, 2015
    Inventors: James N. Highfill, Scott Huard
  • Publication number: 20120056135
    Abstract: A doped silicon single crystal having a resistivity variation along a longitudinal and/or radial axis of less than 10% and a method of preparing one or a sequential series of doped silicon crystals is disclosed. The method includes providing a melt material comprising silicon into a continuous Czochralski crystal growth apparatus, delivering a dopant, such as gallium, indium, or aluminum, to the melt material, providing a seed crystal into the melt material when the melt material is in molten form, and growing a doped silicon single crystal by withdrawing the seed crystal from the melt material. Additional melt material is provided to the apparatus during the growing step. A doping model for calculating the amount of dopant to be delivered into the melt material during one or more doping events, methods for delivering the dopant, and vessels and containers used to deliver the dopant are also disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 1, 2011
    Publication date: March 8, 2012
    Inventors: John P. DeLuca, Frank S. Delk, II, Bayard K. Johnson, William L. Luter, Neil D. Middendorf, Dick S. Williams, Nels Patrick Ostrom, James N. Highfill