Patent ID: 8637117

Claim:
A method of depositing a thin film onto a substrate, comprising: introducing a first precursor gas into a first precursor zone; introducing a second precursor gas into a second precursor zone spaced apart from the first precursor zone, the second precursor gas different from the first precursor gas; imparting relative movement between the substrate and the precursor zones to sequentially expose the substrate to the first precursor zone, an isolation zone supplied with an inert gas, and the second precursor zone so that a thin film is formed on a surface of the substrate by: exposing the surface to the first precursor gas in the first precursor zone to leave a chemisorbed portion of the first precursor gas and an excess non-chemisorbed portion of the first precursor gas on the surface, after entering the isolation zone, momentarily exposing each portion of the surface to energy applied entirely within a border region of the isolation zone by an excess precursor removal mechanism located therein and to the inert gas within an interior region of the isolation zone that is separate from the border region, thereby momentarily activating removal of the excess non-chemisorbed portion from the surface without removing the chemisorbed portion, and exposing the chemisorbed portion to the second precursor gas in the second precursor zone so that the second precursor gas reacts with the chemisorbed portion to form the thin film.