Patent ID: 7842135

Claim:
A chemical vapour deposition (CVD) system, comprising: a reaction chamber; a heater element disposed within the reaction chamber, the heater element comprising one or more conductive strips of heating material, the strips being perforated in one or more places; a substrate support area adjacent to and over lying the heater element; an isolating power supply electrically connected to the heating element by a pair of current supply terminals; a biasing terminal for applying a bias to a substrate supported in the substrate support area; and a conducting shower head disposed within the reaction chamber above the substrate support area and the heater element, and having (i) gas inlet nozzles to admit reaction gas mixtures into the reaction chamber, and (ii) an electrically insulating plate disposed above the nozzles, the electrically insulating plate having apertures therethrough, which apertures are each aligned to and are smaller than the nozzles of the showerhead, wherein the electrically insulating plate is positioned to prevent the reaction gas mixtures admitted into the reaction chamber from coming into contact with walls of the nozzles.