Patent ID: 7897025

Claim:
An apparatus for forming a thin film on a substrate, the apparatus comprising: a treatment vessel into which a carrier gas is introduced; a rotor disposed in the treatment vessel and having a cylindrical peripheral surface which faces a surface of a substrate, said rotor having a cylindrical peripheral surface; said substrate having a portion proximate to said cylindrical peripheral surface and configured such that a first gap is present between said cylindrical peripheral surface and said substrate; a stagnation point P adjacent to a portion of the substrate and adjacent to a portion of the cylindrical peripheral surface; a rotor driving means for rotating the rotor around a central axis of said rotor; a film-forming material supplying member disposed in the treatment vessel and having a portion proximate to said cylindrical peripheral surface of said rotor and configured such that a second gap is present between said film-forming material supplying member and said cylindrical peripheral surface, said film-forming material supplying member facing said cylindrical peripheral surface of said rotor at a position circumferentially apart from the position where the substrate faces said cylindrical peripheral surface, said film-forming material supplying member adapted to supply a film-forming material to the second gap which is present between said film-forming material supplying member and said cylindrical peripheral surface; and a film-forming material supplying means adapted for evaporating, vaporizing, or scattering the film-forming material of the film-forming material supplying member to supply the film-forming material to the cylindrical peripheral surface of the rotor; wherein the atomic molecules of the film-forming material and the cluster particulates thereof, which are supplied to the cylindrical peripheral surface of the rotor at the second gap between the rotor and the film-forming material supplying member, are transported by a flow of the carrier gas including plasma created by the rotor to said stagnation point P located near a position with a minimum dimension of the first gap, said first gap having said stagnation point P adapted to adhere said atomic molecules of the film-forming material and the cluster particulates thereof to the surface of the substrate to form a thin film composed of the film-forming material on the surface of the substrate, and wherein a high-frequency power supply is disposed and electrically connected between the rotor and the film-forming material supplying member, and the high-frequency power supply alternates both the rotor and the film-forming material supplying member as an cathode and a corresponding anode which form an electric field in the second gap between the rotor and the film-forming material supplying member to generate the plasma of the carrier gas.