ADVANCED PLATFORM FOR PROCESSING CRYSTALLINE SILICON SOLAR CELLS
First Claim
1. A processing system, comprising:
- a transfer chamber having a first transfer robot disposed therein, wherein the first transfer robot is configured to transfer an array of substrates;
a first process chamber coupled to the transfer chamber and having a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot;
a second process chamber coupled to the transfer chamber and having a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot;
a load lock chamber coupled to the transfer chamber and having one or more regions with a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot; and
a substrate interface module having a second transfer robot configured to transfer the array of substrates between the substrate interface module and the one or more regions of the load lock chamber.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention generally provides a batch substrate processing system, or cluster tool, for in-situ processing of a film stack used to form regions of a solar cell device. In one configuration, the film stack formed on each of the substrates in the batch contains one or more silicon-containing layers and one or more metal layers that are deposited and further processed within the various chambers contained in the substrate processing system. The processing chambers may be, for example, physical vapor deposition (PVD) or sputtering chambers, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) chambers, low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) chambers, hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) chambers, plasma nitridation (DPN) chambers, ion implant/doping chambers, atomic layer deposition (ALD) chambers, plasma etching chambers, annealing chambers, rapid thermal oxidation (RTO) chambers, rapid thermal annealing (RTA) chambers, substrate reorientation chambers, laser annealing chambers, and/or plasma cleaning stations. In one embodiment, a batch of solar cell substrates is simultaneously transferred in a vacuum or inert environment to prevent contamination from affecting the solar cell formation process.
72 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A processing system, comprising:
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a transfer chamber having a first transfer robot disposed therein, wherein the first transfer robot is configured to transfer an array of substrates; a first process chamber coupled to the transfer chamber and having a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot; a second process chamber coupled to the transfer chamber and having a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot; a load lock chamber coupled to the transfer chamber and having one or more regions with a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot; and a substrate interface module having a second transfer robot configured to transfer the array of substrates between the substrate interface module and the one or more regions of the load lock chamber. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A processing system, comprising:
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a first transfer chamber having a first transfer robot disposed therein, wherein the first transfer robot is configured to transfer an array of substrates; a first process chamber coupled to the first transfer chamber and having a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot; a second process chamber coupled to the first transfer chamber and having a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot; a second transfer chamber having a second transfer robot disposed therein, wherein the second transfer robot is configured to transfer the array of substrates; a pass through chamber coupling the first transfer chamber and the second transfer chamber, wherein each of the first and second transfer robots is configured to transfer the array of substrates to the pass through chamber and receive the array of substrates from the pass through chamber; a load lock chamber coupled to the first transfer chamber and having one or more regions with a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot; and a substrate interface module having a third transfer robot configured to transfer the array of substrates between the substrate interface module and the one or more regions of the load lock chamber. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method of forming a solar cell device, comprising:
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positioning an array of substrates on an end effector of a transfer robot within a transfer chamber; transferring the array of substrates into a first processing chamber coupled to the transfer chamber; processing a first side of each of the array of substrates in the first processing chamber; transferring the array of substrates into a reorientation chamber coupled to the transfer chamber; substantially simultaneously reorienting each substrate such that the first side faces downwardly; transferring the array of substrates into a second processing chamber coupled to the transfer chamber; processing a second side of each of the array of substrates in the second processing chamber. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification