APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CLEAVING THIN LAYER FROM BULK MATERIAL

摘要

Embodiments relate to use of a particle accelerator beam to form thin layers of material from a bulk substrate. In particular embodiments, a bulk substrate (e.g. donor substrate) having a top surface is exposed to a beam of accelerated particles. In certain embodiments, this bulk substrate may comprise a core of crystalline sapphire (Al2O3) material. Then, a thin layer of the material is separated from the bulk substrate by performing a controlled cleaving process along a cleave region formed by particles implanted from the beam. Embodiments may find particular use as hard, scratch-resistant covers for personal electric device displays, or as optical surfaces for fingerprint, eye, or other biometric scanning.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
implanting a plurality of protons into single crystal sapphire material at a temperature of between 650-850° C. to form a cleave region; and performing a controlled cleaving process to separate a cleaved single crystal sapphire layer having a thickness of between 5-100 μm from the single crystal material along the cleave region, wherein the controlled cleaving process comprises applying additional energy in a spatially varying manner to cause controlled cleaving of the single crystal sapphire material propagated in a direction along the cleave region, and wherein the cleaved single crystal sapphire layer has a Total Thickness Variation (TTV) of +/−0.02 μm and a roughness of about 6 nm Ra.