Patents by Inventor Daniel Brien

Daniel Brien 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).

  • Publication number: 20220084848
    Abstract: An apparatus for processing a wafer comprises: a rotatable chuck adapted to receive a wafer; a heating assembly comprising an array of light-emitting heating elements arranged to illuminate a wafer received by the rotatable chuck to heat the wafer; and one or more light sensors arranged to detect light emitted by the array of light-emitting heating elements.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 3, 2020
    Publication date: March 17, 2022
    Inventors: Daniel BRIEN, Pradeep THIRUGNANAM, Matija PONIKVAR, Alois GOLLER
  • Patent number: 11053586
    Abstract: A CVD reactor includes a flat component with two broad sides extending parallel to each other and spaced apart from each other by a thickness. An outer edge of each broad side transitions without kinks into an edge of an outer peripheral side of the flat component. The thickness of the flat component is substantially less than a diameter of the flat component. The flat component includes a core body composed of graphite. The core body is coated with a SiC or TaC coating, which exhibits a compressive stress at room temperature. In order to reduce the stress between the coating and the core body, the rounding arc length of the outer edge is greater than 90° and the rounding radius of the outer edge is at most 1 mm and/or is greater than the coating thickness. Additionally, rounding segments of the peripheral side transition into each other without kinks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignee: AIXTRON SE
    Inventors: Marcel Kollberg, Daniel Brien
  • Patent number: 10658204
    Abstract: A substrate processing system to treat a substrate includes a spin chuck configured to hold and rotate a substrate. A heating assembly is configured to heat an opposite surface of the substrate and includes a main heater assembly and a nozzle stack cap. The main heater assembly includes a first plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) arranged on a first printed circuit board (PCB) in a first plane that is spaced from and parallel to a second plane including the substrate. The nozzle stack cap assembly includes at least one nozzle to dispense liquid onto a center of a first surface of the substrate. A radiant heat source is arranged closer to the substrate than the first plane and is configured to heat the center of the first surface of the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Assignee: LAM RESEARCH AG
    Inventors: Bridget Hill, Michael Puggl, Gerhard Mueller, Henry Roger Osner, Karl-Heinz Hohenwarter, Ulrich Tschinderle, Daniel Brien
  • Patent number: 10438823
    Abstract: A heating apparatus includes a plurality of zone heating apparatuses and a control apparatus. The reference variable of the control apparatus is a susceptor temperature. The controlled variable of the control apparatus is an actual temperature of the susceptor measured by a temperature sensor and the manipulated variable of the control apparatus is the total heating power fed into the heating apparatus. A heating power distributor receives the total heating power as an input variable and provides a zone heating power for each of the zone heating apparatuses as output variables. The sum of the zone heating powers corresponds to the total heating power and the zone heating powers have a specified ratio with respect to each other. In order to specify a robust control loop, the specified ratios are defined by distribution parameters, wherein at least one distribution parameter is a quotient of two zone heating powers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: AIXTRON SE
    Inventor: Daniel Brien
  • Patent number: 10312117
    Abstract: An apparatus for processing wafer-shaped articles includes a rotary chuck adapted to hold a wafer-shaped article of a predetermined diameter thereon. A radiant heating plate faces a wafer-shaped article when positioned on the rotary chuck. The radiant heating plate includes radiant heating elements, but a central region of the radiant heating plate is free of radiant heating elements. The radiant heating plate further includes at least one refraction element that refracts radiation emitted by the radiant heating elements and passed through the at least one refraction element, toward the central region of the radiant heating plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2019
    Assignee: LAM RESEARCH AG
    Inventors: Hongbo Si, Bridget Hill, Butch Berney, Daniel Brien
  • Publication number: 20190051541
    Abstract: A substrate processing system to treat a substrate includes a spin chuck configured to hold and rotate a substrate. A heating assembly is configured to heat an opposite surface of the substrate and includes a main heater assembly and a nozzle stack cap. The main heater assembly includes a first plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) arranged on a first printed circuit board (PCB) in a first plane that is spaced from and parallel to a second plane including the substrate. The nozzle stack cap assembly includes at least one nozzle to dispense liquid onto a center of a first surface of the substrate. A radiant heat source is arranged closer to the substrate than the first plane and is configured to heat the center of the first surface of the substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 8, 2017
    Publication date: February 14, 2019
    Inventors: Bridget Hill, Michael Puggl, Gerhard Mueller, Henry Roger Osner, Karl-Heinz Hohenwarter, Ulrich Tschinderle, Daniel Brien
  • Publication number: 20180047596
    Abstract: An apparatus for processing wafer-shaped articles includes a rotary chuck adapted to hold a wafer-shaped article of a predetermined diameter thereon. A radiant heating plate faces a wafer-shaped article when positioned on the rotary chuck. The radiant heating plate includes radiant heating elements, but a central region of the radiant heating plate is free of radiant heating elements. The radiant heating plate further includes at least one refraction element that refracts radiation emitted by the radiant heating elements and passed through the at least one refraction element, toward the central region of the radiant heating plate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 10, 2016
    Publication date: February 15, 2018
    Inventors: Hongbo SI, Bridget HILL, Butch BERNEY, Daniel BRIEN
  • Publication number: 20170152598
    Abstract: A CVD reactor includes a flat component with two broad sides extending parallel to each other and spaced apart from each other by a thickness. An outer edge of each broad side transitions without kinks into an edge of an outer peripheral side of the flat component. The thickness of the flat component is substantially less than a diameter of the flat component. The flat component includes a core body composed of graphite. The core body is coated with a SiC or TaC coating, which exhibits a compressive stress at room temperature. In order to reduce the stress between the coating and the core body, the rounding arc length of the outer edge is greater than 90° and the rounding radius of the outer edge is at most 1 mm and/or is greater than the coating thickness. Additionally, rounding segments of the peripheral side transition into each other without kinks.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 25, 2015
    Publication date: June 1, 2017
    Applicant: AIXTRON SE
    Inventors: Marcel KOLLBERG, Daniel BRIEN
  • Publication number: 20160204008
    Abstract: The invention relates to a device and to a method for treating substrates, comprising a heating apparatus having a plurality of zone heating apparatuses and comprising a control apparatus, the reference variable of which is a susceptor temperature (TS) and the controlled variable of which is an actual temperature of the susceptor (7) measured by means of a temperature-measuring apparatus (10) and the manipulated variable of which is a value for the heating power (Ptot) fed into the heating apparatus. A heating power distributor (12) is provided, which receives the manipulated variable (Ptot) as an input variable and which provides a zone heating power (P1, P2, P3, P4, P5) for each of the zone heating apparatuses (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) as output variables, wherein the sum of the values of the zone heating powers (P1, P2, P3, P4, P5) corresponds to the manipulated variable (Ptot) and the values of the zone heating powers (P1, P2, P3, P4, P5) have a specified fixed ratio among each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 4, 2014
    Publication date: July 14, 2016
    Applicant: AIXTRON SE
    Inventor: Daniel BRIEN
  • Patent number: 8841221
    Abstract: The invention relates to a device for depositing semiconductor layers, comprising a process chamber (1) arranged substantially rotationally symmetrically about a center (11), a susceptor (2), a process chamber ceiling (3), a gas inlet element (4) having gas inlet chambers (8, 9, 10) that are arranged vertically on top of each other, and a heater (27) arranged below the susceptor (2), wherein the topmost (8) of the gas inlet chambers is directly adjacent to the process chamber ceiling (3) and is connected to a feed line (14) for feeding a hydride together with a carrier gas into the process chamber (1), wherein the lowest (10) of the gas inlet chambers is directly adjacent to the susceptor (2) and is connected to a feed line (16) for feeding a hydride together with a carrier gas into the process chamber (1), wherein at least one center gas inlet chamber (9) arranged between the lowest (10) and the topmost (8) gas inlet chamber is connected to a feed line (15) for feeding an organometallic compound into the pro
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2014
    Assignee: Aixtron SE
    Inventors: Daniel Brien, Oliver Schön
  • Publication number: 20120156396
    Abstract: The invention relates to a CVD reactor comprising a heatable body (2, 3) disposed in a reactor housing, a heating device (4, 17) for heating the body (2, 3) located at a distance from the body (2, 3), and a cooling device (5, 18) located at a distance from the body (2, 3). The heatable body, the heating device, and the cooling device are arranged such that heat is transferred from the heating device (4, 17) across the space between the heating device (4, 17) and the body (2, 3) to the body (2, 3), and from the body (2, 3) across the space between the body (2, 3) and the cooling device (5, 18) to the cooling device (5, 18). In order to be able to affect the surface temperature of the heated process chamber walls in a locally reproducible manner, control bodies (6, 19) can be inserted into the space between the cooling and/or heating device (4, 5, 17, 18). During the thermal treatment or between sequential treatment steps, said bodies are displaced such that the heat transport is locally affected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 30, 2010
    Publication date: June 21, 2012
    Inventors: Gerhard Karl Strauch, Daniel Brien, Martin Dauelsberg
  • Publication number: 20120003389
    Abstract: The invention relates to a device for depositing at least one, in particular crystalline, layer on at least one substrate (5), having a susceptor (2) for accommodating the at least one substrate (5), the susceptor forming the floor of a process chamber (1), having a cover plate (3) which forms the ceiling of the process chamber (1), and having a gas inlet element (4) for introducing process gases, which decompose into the layer-forming components in the process chamber as the result of heat input, and a carrier gas, wherein below the susceptor (2) a multiplicity of heating zones (H1-H8) are situated next to one another, by means of which in particular different heat outputs (Q1, Q2) are introduced into the susceptor (2) in order to heat the susceptor surface facing the process chamber (1) and the gas located inside the process chamber (1), a heat dissipation element (8) which is thermally coupled to the cover plate (3) being provided above the cover plate (3) in order to dissipate the heat transported from th
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2010
    Publication date: January 5, 2012
    Inventors: Daniel Brien, Roland Püsche, Walter Franken
  • Publication number: 20110294283
    Abstract: The invention relates to a device for depositing semiconductor layers, comprising a process chamber (1) arranged substantially rotationally symmetrically about a center (11), a susceptor (2), a process chamber ceiling (3), a gas inlet element (4) having gas inlet chambers (8, 9, 10) that are arranged vertically on top of each other, and a heater (27) arranged below the susceptor (2), wherein the topmost (8) of the gas inlet chambers is directly adjacent to the process chamber ceiling (3) and is connected to a feed line (14) for feeding a hydride together with a carrier gas into the process chamber (1), wherein the lowest (10) of the gas inlet chambers is directly adjacent to the susceptor (2) and is connected to a feed line (16) for feeding a hydride together with a carrier gas into the process chamber (1), wherein at least one center gas inlet chamber (9) arranged between the lowest (10) and the topmost (8) gas inlet chamber is connected to a feed line (15) for feeding an organometallic compound into the pro
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2009
    Publication date: December 1, 2011
    Inventors: Daniel Brien, Oliver Schön