Patent ID: 7060132

Claim:
A method for growing a thin film on a plurality of substrates, which each have a width and a length, in a reaction space according to the ALD method, the method comprising: repeatedly and alternately feeding vapor phase reactants into the reaction space in a form of vapor phase pulses to form a gas flow in the reaction space; causing the vapor phase reactants to react with a surface of a first substrate that is separately removable from a reactor that defines the reaction space to form a thin film compound on the first substrate; turning the gas flow at least once approximately 180 degrees in the direction of the gas flow after causing the vapor phase reactants to react with the surface of the first substrate; and after turning the gas flow at least once approximately 180 degrees in the direction of the gas flow, causing the vapor phase reactants to react with a surface of a second substrate that is separately removable from the reactor that defines the reaction space to form a thin film compound on the second substrate.