Patent ID: 7105054

Claim:
A method for growing a thin film on a surface of a substrate in a reactor according to the ALD method, said method comprising: providing a first conduit for delivering a pulse of a first vapor phase reactant and a second conduit for delivering a pulse of a second vapor phase reactant to said reactor; providing at least a first substrate in a pre-reaction chamber that is defined by a plurality of walls and a second substrate in a reaction chamber, said first substrate being positioned downstream of a point in the pre-reaction chamber where both said first and said second phase reactants have entered the pre-reaction chamber and said pre-reaction chamber being aligned downstream with said reaction chamber and having a single outlet that is directly connected with said reaction chamber, and said first substrate being a separate element from the walls of the pro-reaction chamber; feeding the pulse of the first vapor phase reactant into said pre-reaction chamber and over the first substrate and subsequently into said reaction chamber and over the second substrate; reacting the first vapor phase reactant with said surface of said first substrate and subsequently, with a surface of said second substrate to form a thin film on said first and second substrates, wherein residual first vapor phase reactant remains in said pre-reaction chamber; and feeding a pulse of a second vapor phase reactant into said reactor, wherein said second vapor phase reactant reacts with said residual first vapor phase reactant to form a solid reaction product in said pre-reaction chamber on said first substrate and said second vapor phase reactant subsequently reacts with said surface of said second substrate in said reaction chamber.