Equipment for atmospheric, spatial atomic layer deposition in roll-to-roll processes

<p>A novel type of reactor has been designed for atmospheric atomic layer deposition (ALD) on flexible substrates. In the reactor, a flexible substrate slowly advances around a fast rotating drum. Gas bearing technology is used to prevent physical contact between the flexible substrate and the drum, and to separate reactants to enable a spatial ALD process. With a substrate speed of 1 m/min and drum rotational speed of 5 Hz, a layer of 100 nm of Al₂O₃ can be applied in a continuous roll-to-roll process at deposition rates of 1 nm/s. Higher speeds to ∼2 nm/s are foreseen to be possible.</p>