Patent ID: 8440259

Claim:
A method of combinatorially processing a substrate, the method comprising: flowing a fluid volume over a surface of the substrate, the fluid volume comprising multiple portions, each of the multiple portions comprising different components in order to concurrently expose adjacent segregated regions of the substrate to different portions of the fluid volume, the flowing further comprising; facilitating radially axisymmetric nonreversing flow configured around a central axis of the substrate, wherein the central axis is perpendicular to a plane of the substrate, for the fluid volume over the surface of the substrate while maintaining a substantially uniform conductance around a periphery of the substrate; and, generating differently processed segregated regions by depositing varied material layers in the adjacent segregated regions through repetition of the flowing, wherein flowing further includes directing, toward the surface, a first flow of a carrier fluid and a second flow of a precursor fluid with relative flow rates of the first and second flows being established to substantially equilibrate pressure of respective different portions in the fluid volume.