Patent ID: 8663753

Claim:
A method for simultaneously depositing semiconductor films by chemical vapor deposition in depletion mode on a multiplicity of substrates in a reactor system, deposition gases being nonlinearly depleted along a flow path across the substrates, the nonlinear depletion enabling efficient consumption of deposition gases in a single pass of said deposition gas through said reactor system, said method comprising: detachably mounting said multiplicity of substrates in arrays on first surfaces of a pair of rectangular wafer carrier plates; providing a pair of end caps; assembling said pair of rectangular wafer carrier plates with said multiplicity of substrates detachably mounted thereon and said pair of end caps into a wafer sleeve, said pair of rectangular wafer carrier plates being mutually parallel and said first surfaces being opposed, the first of said pair of end caps filling the gap between said pair of rectangular wafer carrier plates along corresponding first edges of said pair of rectangular wafer carrier plates, the second of said pair of end caps filling the gap between said pair of rectangular wafer carrier plates along corresponding second edges of said pair of rectangular wafer carrier plates, wherein said first and second edges are opposite edges of each of said pair of rectangular wafer carrier plates, wherein said pair of end caps and said pair of rectangular wafer carrier plates form a processing cavity, said processing cavity being closed on first opposing ends by said end caps and open on second opposing ends, said multiplicity of substrates being contained within said processing cavity, and wherein said assembling occurs outside said reactor system; and after said assembling, inserting said wafer sleeve into a deposition module of said reactor system for depositing semiconductor films on said multiplicity of substrates, said depositing said semiconductor films comprising: radiantly heating said rectangular wafer carrier plates, and said multiplicity of substrates detachably mounted thereon, in said deposition module using a heat source outside of said wafer sleeve; and during said radiantly heating, flowing a deposition gas through said wafer sleeve in a first direction parallel to said first opposing ends, wherein said deposition gas is depleted nonlinearly in the flow along said first direction and wherein said radiantly heating is controlled to provide a non-uniform carrier plate temperature along said first direction to compensate for the nonlinear process gas depletion for linearizing the decreasing deposition rate on the surfaces of said multiplicity of substrates along said first direction.