Patent ID: 7232588

Claim:
A method for vaporizing solid organic materials onto a substrate surface to form a film, comprising: a) providing a quantity of solid organic material into a vaporization apparatus; b) actively maintaining by cooling the solid organic material in a first region in the vaporization apparatus to be below the vaporization temperature; c) heating a second region of the vaporization apparatus above the vaporization temperature of the solid organic material so that there is a steep thermal gradient on the order of 200° C./mm across the thickness of the organic material between the first and second regions that protects all but the immediately vaporizing material from the temperature in the second region; and d) metering, at a controlled rate, solid organic material from the first region into the second heating region so that a thin cross section of the solid organic material is heated at a desired rate-dependent vaporization temperature, whereby the thin cross section of solid organic material vaporizes and forms a film on the substrate surface.