A linear evaporation apparatus includes a thermal insulation chamber, and crucibles, evaporation material heaters and a mixing chamber installed in the thermal insulation chamber. The mixing chamber includes a flow limiting and adjusting layer, a flow channel adjusting member, a mixed layer and a linear evaporation layer. The flow limiting and adjusting layer is a rectangular sheet with flow limit holes corresponsive to the crucibles respectively; the flow channel adjusting member is an interconnected structure having at least one flow inlet corresponsive to some of the flow limit holes and at least one flow outlet, and the mixed layer is a substantially I-shaped sheet structure, and the linear evaporation layer is a rectangular sheet having a linear source evaporation opening tapered from both ends to the middle, so as to improve the uniformity of the thin film and the utilization of the evaporation materials.

Methods of producing a self-aligned structure comprising a metal chalcogenide are described. Some methods comprise forming a metal-containing film in a substrate feature and exposing the metal-containing film to a chalogen precursor to form a self-aligned structure comprising a metal chalcogenide. Some methods comprise forming a metal-containing film in a substrate feature, expanding the metal-containing film to form a pillar and exposing the pillar to a chalogen precursor to form a self-aligned structure comprising a metal chalcogenide. Some methods comprise directly forming a metal chalcogenide pillar in a substrate feature to form a self-aligned structure comprising a metal chalcogenide. Methods of forming self-aligned vias are also described.

There is provided a solid electrolyte including at least one layer with no nitrogen and which includes Li.sub.xPO.sub.yS.sub.z, with 0<z≤3, 2.1≤x≤2.4, and 1≤y≤4. A battery including the electrolyte, and a method for producing the electrolyte, are also provided.

A layer of an n-type chalcogenide compositions provided on a substrate in the presence of an oxidizing gas in an amount sufficient to provide a resistivity to the layer that is less than the resistivity a layer deposited under identical conditions but in the substantial absence of oxygen.

A PVD chamber shield includes: a shield configured to surround a space between a sputtering target and a substrate that are disposed in a PVD chamber body, the shield having a hollow shape with an inner surface and an outer surface; and a coating layer formed over the inner surface of the shield. The coating layer has i) a dielectric constant not greater than a dielectric constant of a material deposited over the substrate, ii) a porosity greater than 0 vol % and less than 100 vol %, and iii) a thickness greater than 150 pm and less than a given upper limit, the upper limit being set to prevent an occurrence of peeling of a material deposited over the coating layer.

The instant invention provides a process for making metal or metalloid dichalcogenides from a metal or metalloid and elemental chalcogen using magnetron sputtering. The process may comprise the steps of directing sputtering gas ions at a metal or metalloid target, reacting the ejected metal or metalloid atoms from the target surface with an elemental chalcogen vapor and assembling the metal or metalloid dichalcogenides on a substrate. It can be used to make thin films of the dichalcogenides which have a use in layered semiconductor devices. The process of the invention is suitable for upscaling to potentially make the films on a wafer level. Films on large areas with high uniformity have for instance been obtained utilizing the reaction of the metal or metalloid in an ambient of vaporized chalcogen under controlled conditions and with low growth rates. The process of the invention can be used to deposit two dimensional channels as part of field effect transistors. The materials made with the process in general can have a use in nanoelectronics as a catalyst, as a photo-detector, photovoltaic or photocatalyst.

The present invention provides strategies for making high quality CIGS photoabsorbing materials from precursor films that incorporate a sub-stoichiometric amount of chalcogen(s). Chalcogen(s) are incorporated into the CIGS precursor film via co-sputtering with one or more other constituents of the precursor. Optional annealing also may be practiced to convert precursor into more desirable chalcopyrite crystalline form in event all or a portion of the precursor has another constitution. The resultant precursors generally are sub-stoichiometric with respect to chalcogen and have very poor electronic characteristics. The conversion of these precursors into CIGS photoabsorbing material via chalcogenizing treatment occurs with dramatically reduced interfacial void content. The resultant CIGS material displays excellent adhesion to other layers in the resultant photovoltaic devices. Ga migration also is dramatically reduced, and the resultant films have optimized Ga profiles in the top or bottom portion of the film that improve the quality of photovoltaic devices made using the films.

Embodiments relate generally to semiconductor device fabrication and processes, and more particularly, to systems and methods that implement magnetic field generators configured to generate rotating magnetic fields to facilitate physical vapor deposition (“PVD”). In one embodiment, a system generates a first portion of a magnetic field adjacent a first circumferential portion of a substrate, and can generate a second portion of the magnetic field adjacent to a second circumferential portion of the substrate. The second circumferential portion is disposed at an endpoint of a diameter that passes through an axis of rotation to another endpoint of the diameter at which the first circumferential portion resides. The second peak magnitude can be less than the first peak magnitude. The system rotates the first and second portions of the magnetic fields to decompose a target material to form a plasma adjacent the substrate. The system forms a film upon the substrate.

A process for producing a chalcogen-containing compound semiconductor includes providing at least one substrate coated with a precursor for the chalcogen-containing compound semiconductor in a process chamber; heat treating the at least one coated substrate in the process chamber, wherein during a heat treatment, a gas atmosphere comprising at least one gaseous chalcogen compound is provided in the process chamber; removing the gas atmosphere present after the heat treatment of the at least one coated substrate as a waste gas from the process chamber; cooling the waste gas in a gas processor, wherein a plurality of gaseous chalcogen compounds-present in the waste gas after the heat treatment of the at least one coated substrate are separated in time and space from one another from the waste gas by respective conversion into a liquid or solid form. Further provided is a device designed to carry out the process.

Provided are a method for preparing a high-performance wafer-level lead sulfide near infrared photosensitive thin film. Firstly, a surface of the selected substrate material is cleaned; next, a vaporized oxidant is introduced into a vacuum evaporation chamber under a high background vacuum degree, and a Pbs thin film is deposited on the clean substrate surface to obtain a microstructure with medium particle, loose structure and consistent orientation. Finally, under a given temperature and pressure, a high-performance wafer-level Pbs photosensitive thin film is obtained by sensitizing the film prepared at step S2 using iodine vapor carried by a carrier gas. This preparation method is simple, low-cost and repeatable. The Pbs photosensitive thin film has a high photoelectric detection rate. The 600K blackbody room temperature peak detection rate is >8×1010 Jones. The corresponding non-uniformity in a wafer-level photosensitive surface is <5%, satisfying the requirements of preparation of a Pbs Mega-pixel-level array imaging system.