Patent ID: 7708835

Claim:
A replaceable stackable tray configured to support a horizontal layer of a film precursor and to be stacked with one or more additional replaceable stackable trays in a container of a film precursor evaporation system, where the container has an outer container wall, a container bottom, and a removable container lid configured to be sealably coupled to said outer container wall, said lid having a container outlet sealably connectable to an inlet of a thin film deposition system, said tray comprising: a generally horizontal annular tray bottom having a generally circular outer rim and a generally circular inner rim surrounding a central opening; a generally vertical cylindrical inner tray wall having an inner top edge and extending vertically upward from said inner rim; a generally vertical cylindrical outer tray wall having an outer top edge and extending vertically upward from said inner rim; the tray walls being configured to retain a film precursor between the inner and outer tray walls in a horizontally disposed layer supported on and distributed over the tray bottom; said inner and outer tray walls being of different heights such that one tray wall is a lower wall and the other tray wall is a higher wall that is a stacking wall, the top edge of which is a tray supporting edge that is configured to support another stackable tray on a corresponding inner or outer circular rim of an annular tray bottom thereof; said stacking wall having a plurality of angularly-spaced gas-flow openings formed therein; and the tray, when stacked with one or more other of said trays, forming a plurality of parallel, annular, vertically-spaced, generally horizontal radial flow paths that each extends from a carrier gas supply, through said gas-flow openings of a respective one of the stacked trays, then in a generally horizontal, radial direction over an upper surface of a film precursor supported on said tray bottom of said respective one of the stacked trays, where film precursor evaporates into the carrier gas and from where the carrier gas, along with the evaporated film precursor vapor, flows over the top edge of the lower tray wall of said respective one of the trays to join gas flowing from other paths of the plurality toward and through the outlet in the container lid; whereby carrier gas flowing from the carrier gas supply divides in separate parallel annular, generally horizontal radial paths to flow over precursor supported in one and only one respective tray of a stacked plurality, without flowing over precursor supported in any other tray of the stacked plurality.