Direct write# system
View Patent ↗Methods and apparatus for the deposition of a source material ( 10 ) are disclosed. An atomizer ( 12 ) renders a supply of source material ( 10 ) into many discrete particles. A force applicator ( 14 ) propels the particles in continuous, parallel streams of discrete particles. A collimator ( 16 ) controls the direction of flight of the particles in the stream prior to their deposition on a substrate ( 18 ). In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the viscosity of the particles may be controlled to enable complex depositions of non-conformal or three-dimensional surfaces. The invention also includes a wide variety of substrate treatments which may occur before, during or after deposition. In yet another embodiment of the invention, a virtual or cascade impactor may be employed to remove selected particles from the deposition stream.
1. An apparatus comprising:
a material source for supplying a material to be deposited;
a generator for producing a plurality of discrete particles from said material source;
a carrier gas for propelling said plurality of discrete particles generally toward a substrate;
a coflowing sheath gas which surrounds said carrier gas for focusing said plurality of discrete particles;
no more than one orifice for narrowing a particle stream comprising said coflowing sheath gas, said carrier gas, and said plurality of discrete particles sufficiently to form a deposited feature comprising a feature size of less than one millimeter on the substrate; and
a system for moving the substrate and/or said orifice relative to each other.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 additionally comprising a sorter for sorting said plurality of discrete particles by size.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said coflowing sheath gas forms a boundary layer that prevents said plurality of discrete particles from depositing onto walls of an orifice nozzle.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a virtual impactor.
5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said virtual impactor is placed after said atomizer.
6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said virtual impactor extracts excess carrier gas without substantially reducing the number of said plurality of discrete particles.
7. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said virtual impactor sorts said plurality of discrete particles by size.
8. The apparatus of claim 5 further comprising two or more virtual impactors placed in series.
9. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a laser for processing said plurality of discrete particles.
10. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a computer for storing a Computer Aided Design (CAD) file.
11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said system is operated according to said CAD file.
12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said plurality of discrete particles comprise liquid droplets.
13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein said plurality of discrete particles comprises a mist.
14. The apparatus of claim 12 further comprising a heated tube for drying said liquid droplets.
15. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein a size of said particle stream is approximately 20% of a size of said orifice.
16. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the substrate is non-planar.
17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the substrate is three dimensional.
18. The apparatus of claim 17 further comprising a system for tilting said orifice and/or the substrate with respect to each other.