Patent ID: 8944002
Filing Date: 2015-02-03
Classification: C23C

Abstract:
1. A physical vapor deposition system for depositing combinatorial catalyst samples on a plurality of substrate target areas comprising: (a) a deposition chamber that when open, receives one or more substrates and is sealable after the one or more substrates are loaded therein, the chamber being openable after the one or more substrates have been is processed so that the one or more substrates with can be removed therefrom; (b) a plurality of plasma sources radially disposed within the chamber for depositing catalyst samples on the target areas of the one or more substrates, wherein each of the plasma sources comprises a cluster of separately controllable, co-focused plasma guns for directing a plasma stream of material in a predetermined radially inward direction toward a substrate target area located within the deposition chamber, each gun of a cluster configured for depositing a predetermined catalyst material onto the substrate target area, the substrate target area capable of being moved into alignment with the cluster; (c) a substrate assembly for controllably and selectively positioning an array of substrate deposition spots arranged in a uniform grid on the substrate assembly, the deposition spots defining one or more target areas on at least one substrate within the deposition chamber in order to selectively and sequentially align each of the target areas of the one or more substrates with one of said clusters of plasma guns, said substrate assembly being rotationally movable about an axis that is offset from the substrate assembly and substantially perpendicular to the predetermined direction of the plasma streams and planarly moveable within the deposition chamber in mutually perpendicular directions, one of which is perpendicular to the predetermined radially inward direction of the plasma streams for successively aligning each of the target areas with at least one cluster of plasma guns, whereby movement of the substrate assembly in the mutually perpendicularly directions aligns the at least one cluster of plasma guns with a different target area; and (d) a control system programmably controlling the operation of each gun and the movement of the substrate assembly for alignment of the target areas with the clusters of plasma guns, the control system controlling (i) the amount of power to each gun to regulate a rate of catalyst material deposition, (ii) the amount of time of deposition for each catalyst material to be deposited on a target area, (iii) rotational movement of the substrate assembly in order to align the substrate assembly with one of the radially disposed clusters of plasma guns, and (iv) planarly movement of the substrate assembly, in both x and y directions, in order to align an individual target area of a substrate with the same cluster of plasma guns such that the plasma guns of that cluster are co-focused on the aligned target area.