Patents Examined by Kenneth A Bratland, Jr.
  • Patent number: 11560643
    Abstract: A system for simultaneously manufacturing more than one single crystal of a semiconductor material by physical vapor transport (PVT) includes a plurality of reactors and a common vacuum channel connecting at least a pair of reactors of the plurality of reactors. Each reactor has an inner chamber adapted to accommodate a PVT growth structure for growth of a single semiconductor crystal. The common vacuum channel is connectable to a vacuum pump system for creating and/or controlling a common gas phase condition in the inner chambers of the pair of reactors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: SiCrystal GmbH
    Inventors: Erwin Schmitt, Michael Vogel
  • Patent number: 11542632
    Abstract: A method of making 2D material such as graphene includes introducing a purge gas into a gas confining space within a reaction chamber to purge the gas confining space of oxygen; introducing a donor gas into the gas confining space within the reaction chamber; moving a forming layer within the gas confining space within the reaction chamber when the donor gas is within the gas confining space; and heating the forming layer within the gas confining space to a temperature sufficient to form 2D material while the gas confining space is open to a surrounding atmosphere.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2023
    Assignee: General Graphene Corp.
    Inventors: James Vig Sherrill, Gregory E. Erickson
  • Patent number: 11534819
    Abstract: A furnace for electromagnetic casting a tubular-shaped silicon ingot is provided. The furnace includes a mold, outer and inner induction coils and a support member. The mold includes an outer crucible and an inner crucible. The outer crucible is annular-shaped. The inner crucible is disposed in the outer crucible and spaced away from the outer crucible to provide a gap between the inner crucible and the outer crucible. The mold is configured to receive granular silicon in the gap. The outer induction coil disposed around the outer crucible. The inner induction coil disposed in the inner crucible. The outer induction coil and the inner induction coil are configured to heat and melt the granular silicon in the mold to form a tubular-shaped silicon ingot. The support member is configured to hold and move a seed relative to the mold during formation of the tubular-shaped silicon ingot on the seed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2022
    Assignee: Lam Research Corporation
    Inventors: Igor Peidous, Vijay Nithiananthan
  • Patent number: 11519095
    Abstract: An MBE system is disclosed for eliminating the excess flux in an MBE growth chamber before growth, during growth or growth interruption, and/or after growth by evaporating getter material from an effusion evaporator to the cold panel. The cold panel can be the cryopanel of the MBE growth chamber or a cold panel in an attached chamber. Said MBE system includes the cyropanel in the MBE growth chamber or a cold panel in the chamber attached to the MBE growth chamber. With a proper process such as cooling the cold panel, loading a substrate for the MBE process, providing necessary flux for the MBE growth, heating the effusion evaporator and opening the shutter for the evaporator to get the getter material flux onto the said panel, the excess flux will be eliminated. The cross contamination of the grown layer is then avoided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Inventor: Peng Du
  • Patent number: 11519096
    Abstract: A pedestal 103 of the present invention is a pedestal 103 for a seed 102 for crystal growth, in which one main surface 103a to which the seed 102 adheres is flat, and the pedestal has a gas-permeable region 106 which a thickness from the one main surface 103a that is formed to be locally thin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: SHOWA DENKO K.K.
    Inventor: Shunsuke Noguchi
  • Patent number: 11519097
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a method for growing and doping a strained diamond based on a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. The method comprises: depositing a gradient buffer layer and a relaxation layer on a substrate layer in sequence by the CVD method; and finally, depositing a CVD strained diamond layer on the relaxation layer and performing doping by the CVD method. According to the method, a lattice constant of the relaxation layer prepared by utilizing the CVD method is greater than a lattice constant of the diamond, so that a diamond generates a stretching strain. In growing and doping processes, the CVD strained diamond is in a stretching strain state. Therefore, a formation energy of a doped element is low, and it is easy to dope the diamond, so that a doping concentration of the diamond is high.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: WUHAN UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Sheng Liu, Wei Shen, Gai Wu, Yuzheng Guo, Kang Liang, Qijun Wang, Shizhao Wang
  • Patent number: 11505877
    Abstract: A method of selectively controlling materials structure in solution based chemical synthesis and deposition of materials by controlling input energy from pulsed energy source includes determining solution conditions, searching and/or determining energy barrier(s) of a desired materials structure formation, applying precursor solution with selected solution condition onto a substrate, and applying determined input energy from a pulsed energy source with a selected condition to the substrate, thereby nucleating and growing the crystal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: Purdue Research Foundation
    Inventors: Chunghorng Liu, Siyu Liu
  • Patent number: 11499246
    Abstract: A crystal raw material loading device and a crystal growth device includes a plurality of bearing units which are arranged adjacent to each other horizontally in turn, and the multiple bearing units include a first bearing unit arranged at one end of a small plane far away from the seed crystal bearing device. Along the direction from one end of the small plane far away from the seed crystal to one end of the small plane close to the seed crystal, from the first bearing unit to the bearing unit on the side of the small plane close to the seed crystal, the height of the raw material that can be carried by each bearing unit is reduced in turn.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: HUNAN SANAN SEMICONDUCTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Zebin Chen, Minfeng Wang, Hongji Liao, Huarong Chen
  • Patent number: 11479876
    Abstract: The present invention includes: transferring a C-plane sapphire thin film 1t having an off-angle of 0.5-5° onto a handle substrate composed of a ceramic material having a coefficient of thermal expansion at 800 K that is greater than that of silicon and less than that of C-plane sapphire; performing high-temperature nitriding treatment on the GaN epitaxial growth substrate 11 and covering the surface of the C-plane sapphire thin film 1t with a surface treatment layer 11a made of AlN; having GaN grow epitaxially on the surface treatment layer 11a; ion-implanting a GaN film 13; pasting and bonding together the GaN film-side surface of the ion-implanted GaN film carrier and a support substrate 12; performing peeling at an ion implantation region 13ion in the GaN film 13 and transferring a GaN thin film 13a onto the support substrate 12; and obtaining a GaN laminate substrate 10.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: SHIN-ETSU CHEMICAL CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yoshihiro Kubota, Kazutoshi Nagata
  • Patent number: 11479875
    Abstract: A system for manufacturing one or more single crystals of a semiconductor material by physical vapor transport (PVT) includes a reactor having an inner chamber adapted to accommodate a PVT growth structure for growing the one or more single crystals inside. The reactor accommodates the PVT growth structure in an orientation with a growth direction of the one or more single crystals inside the PVT growth structure substantially horizontal with respect to a direction of gravity or within an angle from horizontal of less than a predetermined value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: SiCrystal GmbH
    Inventors: Erwin Schmitt, Michael Vogel
  • Patent number: 11466384
    Abstract: A method for forming a laterally-grown group III metal nitride crystal includes providing a substrate, the substrate including one of sapphire, silicon carbide, gallium arsenide, silicon, germanium, a silicon-germanium alloy, MgAl2O4 spinel, ZnO, ZrB2, BP, InP, AlON, ScAlMgO4, YFeZnO4, MgO, Fe2NiO4, LiGa5O8, Na2MoO4, Na2WO4, In2CdO4, lithium aluminate (LiAlO2), LiGaO2, Ca8La2(PO4)6O2, gallium nitride, or aluminum nitride (AlN), forming a pattern on the substrate, the pattern comprising growth centers having a minimum dimension between 1 micrometer and 100 micrometers, and being characterized by at least one pitch dimension between 20 micrometers and 5 millimeters, growing a group III metal nitride from the pattern of growth centers vertically and laterally, and removing the laterally-grown group III metal nitride layer from the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: SLT Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark P. D'Evelyn, Derrick S. Kamber
  • Patent number: 11453956
    Abstract: Techniques for processing materials in supercritical fluids including processing in a capsule disposed within a high-pressure apparatus enclosure are disclosed. The disclosed techniques are useful for growing crystals of GaN, AlN, InN, and their alloys, including InGaN, AlGaN, and AlInGaN for the manufacture of bulk or patterned substrates, which in turn can be used to make optoelectronic devices, lasers, light emitting diodes, solar cells, photoelectrochemical water splitting and hydrogen generation devices, photodetectors, integrated circuits, and transistors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2022
    Assignee: SLT Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark P. D'Evelyn, James S. Speck, Derrick S. Kamber, Douglas W. Pocius
  • Patent number: 11453959
    Abstract: A crystal growth apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a crucible, a heater which is installed on an outward side of the crucible and surrounds the crucible, and a coil which is installed on an outward side of the heater and surrounds the heater, in which an inner surface of the heater on the crucible side includes a first region, and a second region which is further away from an outer side surface of the crucible than the first region is.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2022
    Assignee: SHOWA DENKO K.K.
    Inventor: Yohei Fujikawa
  • Patent number: 11453957
    Abstract: A crystal growing apparatus includes: a crucible which includes a main body portion, and a first portion having a radiation rate different from that of the main body portion, and is capable of controlling a temperature of a specific region inside during heating to a higher or lower temperature than that of the other regions; and a heating unit which is positioned on the outside of the crucible and is configured to heat the crucible by radiant heat, and the first portion is at a position where the crucible and a line segment connecting a heating center of the heating unit and the specific region intersect with each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2022
    Assignee: SHOWA DENKO K.K.
    Inventors: Rimpei Kindaichi, Yoshishige Okuno, Tomohiro Shonai
  • Patent number: 11453958
    Abstract: The present invention provides a heat-insulating shield member, wherein the heat-insulating shield member is arranged and used between a SiC source housing (3) and a substrate support (4) in a single crystal manufacturing apparatus (10), wherein the single crystal manufacturing apparatus (10) comprises a crystal growth container (2) and a heating member (5) arranged on an outer periphery of the crystal growth container (2), wherein the crystal growth container (2) includes the SiC source housing (3) disposed at a lower portion of the apparatus, and the substrate support (4) which is arranged above the SiC source housing (3) and supports a substrate (S) used for crystal growth so as to face the SiC source housing (3), and wherein the single crystal manufacturing apparatus (10) is configured to grow a single crystal (W) from a SiC source (M) on the substrate (S) by sublimating the SiC source (M) from the SiC source housing (3).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2022
    Assignee: SHOWA DENKO K.K.
    Inventor: Yohei Fujikawa
  • Patent number: 11441233
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides an open temperature field device, including a bottom plate, a drum, a filler, and a cover plate. The bottom plate may be mounted on a bottom of the temperature field device and cover an open end of the drum. The cover plate may be mounted on a top of the temperature field device and cover the other open end of the drum. The filler may be filled inside the drum. In the temperature field device, the filler filled inside the drum can form a new thermal insulation layer, which effectively prevents the problem of sudden temperature changes caused by the cracking of the drum and improves the stability performance and a count of reusable times of the temperature field device. Meanwhile, by adjusting the filling height and the tightness of the filler, the temperature gradient of the temperature field device can be adjusted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2022
    Assignee: MEISHAN BOYA ADVANCED MATERIALS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yu Wang, Weiming Guan, Zhenxing Liang
  • Patent number: 11441235
    Abstract: A crystal growing apparatus includes: a crucible including a main body portion and a low radiation portion having a radiation rate lower than that of the main body portion; and a heating unit which is positioned on the outside of the crucible and is configured to heat the crucible by radiant heat, and the low radiation portion is provided on an outer surface of a first point which is a heating center, in a case where the crucible does not include the low radiation portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2022
    Assignee: SHOWA DENKO K.K.
    Inventors: Rimpei Kindaichi, Yoshishige Okuno, Tomohiro Shonai
  • Patent number: 11434582
    Abstract: A method of producing silicon carbide is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of providing a sublimation furnace comprising a furnace shell, at least one heating element positioned outside the furnace shell, and a hot zone positioned inside the furnace shell surrounded by insulation. The hot zone comprises a crucible with a silicon carbide precursor positioned in the lower region and a silicon carbide seed positioned in the upper region. The hot zone is heated to sublimate the silicon carbide precursor, forming silicon carbide on the bottom surface of the silicon carbide seed. Also disclosed is the sublimation furnace to produce the silicon carbide as well as the resulting silicon carbide material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2022
    Assignee: GTAT Corporation
    Inventors: Roman V. Drachev, Santhanaraghavan Parthasarathy, Andriy M. Andrukhiv, David S. Lyttle
  • Patent number: 11427927
    Abstract: A SiC single crystal manufacturing apparatus of the present invention includes a growth container having a growth space in which a SiC single crystal is grown in a first direction and a heat insulating material which covers the growth container and includes a plurality of units, and the plurality of units include a first unit and a second unit having at least a thermal conductivity different from that of the first unit, and the first unit includes a container made of at least one of graphite and a metal carbide and a filler filled into the container in a replaceable manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: SHOWA DENKO K.K.
    Inventor: Yohei Fujikawa
  • Patent number: 11424147
    Abstract: According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a deposition apparatus including: a reaction space which is a reaction chamber; a front chamber for deposition; a raw material supply port that is configured to supply a raw material to the reaction space; an opening for measuring a temperature of a wafer mounted on a wafer mounting surface of a mounting stage disposed in the reaction space; and a partition plate that partitions the reaction space and the front chamber for deposition, in which the raw material supply port is positioned on the same plane as the partition plate or on the reaction space side from the partition plate, and the opening is positioned in the front chamber for deposition side from the partition plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2022
    Assignee: SHOWA DENKO K.K.
    Inventors: Keisuke Fukada, Naoto Ishibashi, Hironori Atsumi