The invention refers to an evaporation chamber according to claim 1, to an evaporation system according to claim 26, to a method to apply at least a coating layer to the surface of a substrate according to claim 37 and to a method to manufacture a coated substrate according to claim 38.

The invention thereby comprises an evaporation chamber designed for at least one single substrate, the chamber comprising a sidewise transfer opening and an evaporator separated in an evaporator housing with a shutter, as well as a system comprising such a chamber and a handling device. The setup is preferably used for directional deposition, like in lift-off applications, e.g. for wafers having a diameter of more than 20 or 30 cm, like 12" semi conductor wafers. The invention makes it possible to combine a single wafer multi chamber process system with a single wafer evaporation chamber. Evaporation chambers, due to the specific features of the evaporation process, need a long distance between the material source, which is usually a thermal evaporator comprising a crucible, and the

substrate and therefore are designed as batch tools with the disadvantages of losing the economic value of a

complete batch in the case of a process failure.

Additionally, due to manual loading or specialized loading systems batch tools bear the risk of a high particle level. Despite of the fact that the present invention had its origin in the development of a single substrate system having a single substrate chamber, it has been found that the invention could be modified to coat or metalize a small number of substrates in an inventive evaporation chamber using the same principle by modifications of certain components, like substrate holder, frame and support. Such substrates may be wafers of the latest generation having a big diameter.

Therefor the invention is directed to an Evaporation chamber (2) having a bottom (3), a top (4), and at least one side-wall (5) comprising further

- a high vacuum pump system connected to the

evaporation chamber by a pump socket;

- at least one evaporation crucible arranged in or at the bottom of the chamber;

- a substrate holder for at least one essentially planar substrate, having a substrate surface to be coated, mounted to hold the substrate in a substrate plane SP in an upper region of the chamber, which is defined as the region below and neighboring the top, whereby the substrate plane is opposite and in a line of sight of the crucible, which means with the surface to be coated in line of sight of an evaporation cone to be effected by the crucible when a shutter is open;

- an evaporator housing comprising the crucible and an energy source, to evaporate material which has been furnished into the crucible, the material having a material surface which can be a liquid or a solid surface comprising at least the surface of a powder, tablets, or a massive solid material molten in the crucible, e.g. from preceding evaporation processes or heating up. Thereby the surface will be essentially horizontally independent from the actual state of matter. The housing further has a cover plate with an aperture to define a width of a vapor cone V which is spaced from the crucible in an upwards direction and a shutter arranged to close the aperture;

therefor the vacuum chamber can be designed to form a housing recessed in the bottom of the vacuum chamber or have a lower part of the vacuum chamber partitioned make the housing.

Alternatively the housing can be provided boxlike with separate sidewalls on the bottom of the chamber;

- at least one transfer opening (19) on at least one side wall in the upper region of the evaporation chamber, the at least one transfer opening may comprise a vacuum lock;

Further on the invention is directed to an evaporation system comprising an inventive evaporation chamber and at least one handler configured to transfer the substrate in a horizontal transfer plane (TP) in and/or out of the chamber via the transfer opening. Thereby the transfer plane is above the substrate when mounted on the substrate holder, e.g. above a substrate frame or above the substrate plane when the substrate plane is oriented horizontally. The transfer plane TP can be situated between a load level plane LP and the top of the chamber. The load level plane LP, which is defined as the plane in which substrates are loaded to the substrate holder, can be the same as the substrate plane LP as long the substrates plane essentially is oriented horizontally too.

The substrate holder of the vacuum chamber can be

configured to hold one single up to 15 essentially planar substrates, e.g. especially for big wafers one, three and six or seven wafers, whereby the substrate holder comprises at least one substrate frame having a substrate support arranged in a substrate plane (SP) . Each substrate frame can be configured to comprise a circular port, e.g. formed by a pair of fingers, whereby the circumference enclosed by the fingers can be between 180° and 210° , e.g. between 200° and 250°. The sideways mouth between the fingertips can be positioned in a direction towards the transfer opening (s) . The support comprises at least one retaining means, like a retaining step or a retaining nib which both can be

positioned at the inner circumference of the pair of fingers .

In a further embodiment the chamber comprises a shaft drive to rotate the substrate frame, which can be performed by driving directly the substrate frame or driving the frame via the substrate holder, e.g. with a drive shaft. The substrate holder and or the substrate frame itself may comprise means to adjust the height of the substrate frame and thereby the height and/or the inclination of the substrate plane. Such means may comprise distance rods, screws or other fixing means.

Holder drive shaft and its rotational axis R will be usually chosen to be about vertical or with an offset R' vertical above the crucible below. However, drive shaft and it's rotational axis can also be positioned oblique to the perpendicular R' ' , e.g. with an angle g between 15° and 25°, if a multi-substrate holder is used as discussed in detail below.

In an embodiment of the evaporation chamber the substrate frame is per se horizontally oriented or alternatively or additionally the holder and/or the chamber can comprise orientation means to pivot further substrate frames circularly mounted to the substrate holder from a further substrate plane SP (position 2) oblique to a horizontal plane for use during the evaporation process, into a horizontal plane (position 2) for loading the flat

substrates. Such orientation means may comprise a static or vertically movable frame lifter at a sidewall or on the bottom of the evaporation chamber to rise/lower the outer part of the frame, i.e. the part of the frame which is positioned outwardly in a radial direction of the circular arrangement, e.g. at least one tip of the pair of fingers of the frames. Thereby hinges between the substrate holder and the frames may allow swiveling of the frames. The change of the horizontal orientation of a circular arranged substrate frame may be initialized by a vertical movement of a frame lifter or when the frame lifter is fixed by a vertical movement of the holder, e.g. by lowering/lifting the holder drive shaft along the rotational axis R, R' . Other orientation means may comprise instead a respective geared or segmented transmission from the holder drive shaft to the circular arranged frame.

In the first position each substrate frame defines a further substrate plane SP' , SP' ' being oriented downwards from axis R, R' in a first acute angle to a horizontal plane and intersecting each other in the rotational axis R, R' . The angle can be set from 10° to 30° thereby forming a flat three-, four-, five-, six- or more sided pyramid or respective frustum of the pyramid, if one or more

horizontal substrate frames should be positioned in the center top of the pyramid frustum. Alternative, e.g. for substrates having concave surfaces to be coated, instead of a pyramidal or truncated pyramidal arrangement, further substrate frames may also be formed and arranged in a truncated cone or truncated calotte arrangement analog as mentioned with the plane sided pyramidal arrangements above .

Any (further) substrate frame may comprise a clamp

mechanism to fix the substrate and thereby avoid loss of substrate e.g. during rotational movement of the substrate holder. Such clamp mechanism may comprise a clamp mounted above the substrate plane on the substrate frame projecting at least a retaining means or even the inner circumference of the circular substrate port in an inner, e.g. central position of the circumference. The clamp can be realized resilient at least in a direction normal to the surface of the substrate frame, e.g. normal to the load level plane LP or the substrate frame SP, and can be provided with a guide nose or guide plane as a help to automatic loading by the handler. Additionally, the substrate frame itself and/or the transfer means of the handler can be realized with respective resilient properties. Thereby transfer means can comprise a substrate stop, e.g. a step or two studs on the upper surface, to enable to push the substrate along the guide nose into the substrate frame.

In the second position further substrate frames will be in the same horizontal plane, which usually will be the load level plane (LP) , and may comprise also one or more

substrate frames fixed in the horizontal position in a central area between circularly arranged further substrate frames .

Further substrate frames therefor are mounted swiveling to the substrate holder. Instead of swiveling means as

mentioned above the substrate holder may comprise a geared or/and segmented transmission from the drive shaft or the holder shaft to the further frames which usually will comprise too separate hinges for each further substrate frame, to move further substrate frames from oblique position 1 to horizontal position 2 and vice versa.

The vacuum lock of the transfer opening (s) can be provided with a valve, which can be a slit valve (s), to allow to pump down the evaporation chamber to a lower process pressure when the valve is closed.

The aperture of the vacuum chamber is dimensioned and positioned in a distance between the crucible and the substrate surface such that an evaporation cone covers at least the complete surface area to be coated or an area which is bigger up to 5% or up to 10% than the substrate area. Wherefore the aperture can be positioned in a

distance from 100 to 350 mm, or from 200 to 300 mm from the material surface and the substrate frame can be arranged to position the substrate surface in an evaporation distance from 400 to 1500 mm, or from 500 to 1000 mm. Thereby the evaporation distance is defined as the distance between the surface to be coated and the material surface in the center of the vapor cone V, or roughly for ease of calibration from the crucible to the substrate surface.

To allow automatic process monitoring a measurement system can be arranged in or at the evaporation chamber in line of sight to at least a part of the surface of the material to be evaporated from the crucible. Therefor a measurement opening can be provided in an upper part of the evaporator housing to provide a line of sight to the measurement system. As a measurement system a micro crystal balance can be used. A monitoring window can be foreseen in a sidewall or the top of the evaporation chamber and can be visually connected either directly or via deflection means, e.g. a beam diversion, with a line of sight window in the

evaporator housing. In a further embodiment a plasma source can be arranged in the evaporation chamber, e.g. in the housing of the

evaporator to ionize the vapor directly above or at least nearby the crucible.

The handler of the evaporation system is configured to lower/lift the substrate on/from the wafer frame (s) when the wafer frame is positioned in the load level plane LP, and may comprise a transfer means, e.g. a transfer fork, to transport the substrate (s) . Thereby the handler can be formed as a forklift to lower the substrate from a

transport and transfer plane (TP) into the substrate support when the substrate frame is or has been moved in the lower load level plane (LP) .

In an embodiment of the invention the handler is positioned in a central handler chamber between at least one load- lock, to introduce the substrate into vacuum, and at least one evaporation chamber. Thereby a separate vacuum pump system can be connected to the handler chamber either directly or via a further process or coating station attached. In case of a separate pump system a further load lock, e.g. a slit-valve, will be provided to the vacuum chamber. The handler can be configured to transfer a substrate from a load-lock chamber via transfer opening into and out of the evaporation chamber and or further processing stations or coating stations, enabling also direct substrate transfer between different processing or coating stations, e.g. for pre-/posttreatment, heating, cooling, etching, coating (e.g. by evaporation or sputtering) . Alternatively the handler can be configured to transfer a substrate directly from atmosphere, e.g. from a FOUP (Front Opening Universal Pod) box, via load-lock and transfer opening into and out of the evaporation chamber and or further processing stations or coating stations. In most cases however a separate atmospheric handler will place the substrates, e.g. wafers, via a load-lock into a load-lock chamber or load-lock section of the evaporation system.

The handler may comprise a, e.g. central, vertical

rotational axis HA and one or more, e.g. two, three or four handling arms comprising radial kinetic means to move out or retract the arm(s) in a radial direction from the rotational axis. Such means can be formed as telescopic or swiveling means, e.g. like a pair of frog arms joint on one end at or near the axis HA and on the other end at or near the transfer means. Whereby at least one further joint is positioned on every arm between the ends, all joints being swivel mounted in the same plane, e.g. a horizontal plane like transfer plane and load level plane.

In a further embodiment the evaporation chamber comprises a first transfer opening and a second transfer opening arranged on different sides of the evaporation chamber and a first handler can be configured to transfer the substrate into the evaporation chamber via the first transfer opening and a second handler of the evaporation chamber and a first handler can be configured to transfer the substrate out of the evaporation chamber via the second transfer opening. Alternatively a further handler can be arranged in the evaporation chamber, e.g. instead of the first and second handler, to transfer the substrate into and out of the chamber. At least one of the first and second handler or the further handler can be a linear handler or a part of a linear transport system. Thereby first transfer opening and second transfer opening can be arranged facing each other on opposite sides of the evaporation chamber. Otherwise with non-linear or combined circular and linear transport systems between an evaporation chamber and coating or processing stations or a further evaporation chamber, other angles of the opening direction of the in/out-openings for the substrate transport can be chosen, e.g. in the range from about 70° to 180°, to transport substrates in the substrate plane.

In a further embodiment the evaporation system comprises a substrate flipper to turn the substrate upside down and/or up. the flipper can be arranged before the transfer opening outside the evaporation chamber, e.g. in an atmospheric handling station.

The energy source to operate the crucible can be a heater, a laser device, e.g. a laser gun, or an e-beam gun, e.g. a scannable e-beam gun.

The invention is further directed to a method to apply at least one coating layer to the surface of a substrate by means of an evaporation chamber or an evaporation system according to the invention. The invention is further directed to a method of manufacturing a coated substrate wherein at least a part of the coating and/or processing is made by means of an evaporation chamber or an evaporation system according to the invention, e.g. by one or a combination of the

addressed embodiments of a chamber or a system.

The inventive methods to apply a coating onto a substrate or to manufacture a substrate can be performed to a wafer substrate, e.g. for the coating of a wafer with a trench structure of high aspect ratio (proportional relationship between its depth and its width) . Such methods can be used to produce structured material, e.g. from thermal

evaporation processes, within lift-off processes. Therefor the present invention also comprises a lift-off process to apply at least one lift-off coating to a substrate, e.g. a wafer, in the coating chamber. Such a lift-off coating can be applied within a series of processing- and coating processes which can at least partially be performed in the evaporation system and combined with the application of the lift-off coating.

In the following the invention shall be described by specific examples and figures. Two or more embodiments and examples or figures may be combined unless they can be obviously be recognized to be contradictory for the man of art. All figures are drawn in an exemplary and simplified way whereby references to features well known to the man of art have been omitted when not necessary for the understanding. Reference numbers for different embodiments of the same or very similar features can be the same or can be differed by one or more apostrophes where necessary. The figures show:

Fig 1 a basic scheme of an inventive evaporation

system;

Fig 2 a basic scheme of an inventive evaporation

chamber;

Fig 3 a substrate holder of an inventive system;

Fig 4 details of a substrate holder and handler arm;

Fig 5 an embodiment of an inventive evaporation

system;

Fig 6 a further embodiment of an inventive

evaporation system;

Fig 7 a third embodiment of an inventive system;

Fig 8 another embodiment of a substrate holder;

Fig 9 a further embodiment of a substrate holder.

Figure 1 shows a basic concept of the inventive evaporation system 1 comprising an evaporation chamber 2 a handler chamber 22 with a handler 24 and a transfer opening 19 between, whereby a transfer opening is implemented as a slit valve 19 to allow to have different pressure levels in the evaporation chamber 2 and handling chamber 22. It has to be understood that both chambers have their own pumping systems, a pump system 6 for the evaporation chamber and a vacuum pump system 23 for the handling chamber.

Alternatively the handling chamber 22 may be connected to another pump system which supplies the vacuum function to several substrate units (e.g. load-lock chamber 26, processing station 28, coating station 29).

The handler 20 can rotate the substrate 10 at least in a transfer plane TP in the handler chamber 22 and move into an XY-direction to forward the substrate into the

evaporation chamber. The handler can be made as a frog arm handler 20, having at least one frog arm being rotatable mounted on a vertical handler axis HA. Alternatively also a rotatable telescopic handler can be used. At the end of the handling arm 24 a wafer can be placed and hold on the fork fingers of a transfer fork 21, for details see figure 4. To transfer the wafer 10 to the evaporation chamber 2 valve 38 in the transfer opening 19 is opened and the handler stretches trough the opening into the evaporation chamber 22. Having reached the end-position in XY-direction the handler performs as a fork lift and lowers the substrate 10 into the substrate frame 31 which is performed by a

vertical movement z of the axis HA. Thereafter, the

handling arm 24 is retracted so that valve 38 can close the transfer opening to start the evaporation process.

The handler from figure 1 and figure 5 is made as central handler 20 in a respective handler chamber 22 to transfer substrates, e.g. wafers, from a load-lock support 26' to the at least one evaporation chamber 2 and different processing stations 28 or coating stations 29 and vice versa. Also direct transfers from evaporation chamber 2 to process stations 28 or coating stations 29 can be performed by the two arms handler 20. The lower surface 10' of the substrate 10 in the substrate frame 31 defines the substrate plane which is horizontally with single wafer chambers or systems.

To heat up the material 18 until the material surface 18' is molten at least in part shutter 15 of the evaporator housing 12 is closed. The housing 12 of the evaporator 9 can be made by partitioning evaporation chamber 2 into an upper and lower chamber as can been seen in figure 1 or can be made as separate evaporator housing on the bottom 3 of the evaporation chamber 2 as can been seen in figure 2. Respective side walls 12 and cover plate 13 of the housing 11 are defined. In the cover plate 13 an aperture 14 is placed in a line of sight to the substrate which can be closed by a shutter 15. Additionally, a distribution shield 14' can be provided within or on the aperture to optimize the stream in the vapor cone V and thereby optimize the coating distribution on the substrate 10. Also the width of the vapor cone V is defined by aperture 14 and/or

distribution shield 14'. The shutter 15 in figure 1 is a two-flapped shutter with flaps each moving in opposite X- direction whereas shutter 15 in figure 2 comprises one flap rotatable in an XY-plane. The wafer 10 can be positioned centered to the center point of the crucible, i.e. the center point of the operative crucible which is positioned to have its material be evaporated, whereby a virtual axis R is formed between the center point of the crucible and the center of the wafer. Alternatively the wafer can be positioned slightly of-axis forming a virtual vertical axis R' trough the center of the wafer. Such offset can be chosen to further optimize coating distribution on the wafer and shouldn't be more than 5 to 50 mm from the center point of the crucible 8. Independent from any offset the evaporation cone V has to be opened wide enough by the design of the aperture 14 or the distribution shield 14' and the heights of the aperture in such a way that at least 100% of the substrate surface to be coated is placed within the vapor cone V. To optimize distribution the vapor cone V in the substrate plane SE should have a size of 5 to 10% bigger than the substrate surface 10'. The distance between the molten material surface 18' to the substrate plane can be chosen from 400 to 1500 mm. For many lift-off

applications however also distances from 500 to 1000 mm will work and still give satisfying results allowing at the same time to lower chamber and system costs.

Figure 2 shows some further details of an inventive

evaporation chamber 2 of inventive system 1. The chamber is operated with a rotary holder drive 50 to rotate a two- frame substrate holder 30 the details of which can be seen in figure 3. Contrary to the chamber partition in figure 1 the evaporator housing 11 is formed as box on the bottom 3 and distant from the side walls 5 of the evaporation chamber. Therewith housing side walls 12 also support cover plate 13. The housing comprises a multiple evaporation crucible 8 having several crucibles placed on a rotatable table whereby crucibles with different materials can be turned into the electron beam eB generated by a hot

filament 17 and steered by a magnetic field generator (not shown) to scan the electron beam over the material surface 18'. It should be noted that distance D between the

crucible 8 or material surface 18' and the cover plate comprising aperture 14, shutter 15 and if needed

distribution shield 14', should be chosen from 100 to 350 mm or from 200 to 300 mm according to the present

invention. This distance is essentially higher than usual distances between shutter and evaporation crucible of state of the art evaporators. Additionally, housing side walls should be in a comparable distance from the active

crucible, that means the crucible from which material 18 is evaporated. Thereby less coating thickness per area is produced in the evaporator housing 11 which helps to avoid or minimize dust as well as to allow longer cleaning cycles of the housing 11. Due to the higher volume and open space of the present housing 11 also a plasma source 34 can be provided in the housing, whereby the plasma P can act directly act on the vapor coming from the crucible, thereby giving a higher ionization rate than plasma sources placed in the evaporation chamber 2 outside the evaporator housing 11. For automatic process control a measurement system 42 is positioned above the evaporator housing 11 having a line a sight connection given by a separate measurement opening 16 in the cover plate 13 of the housing 11. Such system can be a micro crystal balance or a plasma emission monitor and serves to recognize when the evaporation rates from the material surface 18' has reached a constant level before opening the shutter 15. A monitoring window 46, a beam diversion as deflection means 45 and a line of sight window 44 are provided to monitor the material surface 18' by an operator. The measurement opening 16 and the line of sight window 44 are positioned so that they are not covered by the shutter 15 neither in a closed nor in an open position and are out of any line of sight to a substrate surface.

Figure 3 and figure 4 show details of the substrate holder 13 comprising an upper frame 47 and a lower substrate frame 31. The upper frame 47 being positioned in a horizontal plane above the transfer plane TP, the lower substrate frame positioning the lower substrate surface 10' to be coated in a horizontal substrate plane SP both being connected to opposing ends of distance rods 48 having means 39 to adjust the height of the substrate frame 31 with reference to the material surface 18', whereby the wafer is centered or offset vertically above the crucible center point. Adjusting means 39 may comprise distance rods 48 and screws as fixing means 49. Holder 30 is mounted to a holder transmission 51 and holder drive 50 which rotate the holder 30 around vertical holder axis HA being centered or offset to the crucible center point. Wafer 10 is received on retaining steps 36 and retaining nib 37 in the inner circumference of an open circular port 34 forming a

sideways mouth 35 with a pair of fingers 33. Figure 4 shows the wafer 10 still on the fork fingers 21 of handling arm 24 short before reaching the final X-position in the transfer plane (direction of movement illustrated by arrows) . After having reached the final X-position the handler 24 acts as a fork lift and lowers the substrate 10 to the substrate supports (steps, nibs) . After the handover the fork lift is further lowered to interrupt the contact to the substrate, e.g. by further lowering the handler along or parallel to axis HA. Thereafter the arm 24 is retracted slightly below the substrate plane trough the transfer opening 19 to have the valve slit closed and start the evaporation process.

Figure 5 shows an example of an inventive evaporation system with load-lock chamber 26 several processing

stations 28 and coating stations 29 as well as evaporation chamber 2 circularly arranged around handler chamber 22 of a central handler 20 having two handling arms 24 mounted on frog arms for lateral movement and a rotatable central axis for rotational movement and movement in the z-axis

direction (vertical) . Both handler arms being provided with a transfer fork, load-lock chamber 26 comprises three load- lock supports 26' configured with sideways mouth (not shown) to allow the transfer fork to pick up the wafers. On the other side of the load-lock 25 atmospheric handling stations 57 are arranged comprising a flipper 41 to flip wafers into an upside down position so that the surface to be coated is a lower surface 10' of the wafer 10. On the system entrance/exit 58 front opening universal pods (FOUB) 27 can be mounted and discharged and charged by atmospheric handler 20' as shown in figure 6. Such handler can be of similar construction as central handler 20 or as shown as portal handler whereby a lift fork as well as suction means can be used to lift the wafers. Interface 59 provides access for human operators to start, stop or moderate processes to be performed by system 1.

A further embodiment of an inventive evaporation system is shown in figure 6. Instead of a central handler a carrousel 55 is used to deliver wafers into the evaporation chamber 2, coating station 29 and processing stations 28 up to the actual need. Atmospheric handling and respective

atmospheric handling stations 57 can be designed similarly to the one discussed above with figure 5. In this case however load-locks 25 can open to a carrousel load-lock section 61 within the carrousel chamber 60. Carrousel load- lock section 61 can be separated from carrousel chamber 60 by means of two vacuum locks (not shown) , both sections can be pumped separately. Further vacuum pumps 6, 6', 6' ' are provided with evaporation chamber 2, coating station 29 and processing station 28 in analogy to figure 5. Wafers 10 can be placed on carrousel supports 56 by atmospheric handler 20 ' .

Figure 7 shows a vertical section of a further embodiment of the actual invention. This section shows a part of an arrangement which can be performed with a circular system similar to figure 6 or a linear system with load-lock chamber 26 evaporation chamber 2, coating station 29 and processing station 28 (not shown in figure 7) arranged at least in part linearly. With respect to such an arrangement evaporation chamber, processing station and coating station need to have two transfer openings to handle wafers in and out the respective chamber. A symbolized atmospheric handler (three arrows) 20' can put the substrate via load- lock 25 into the load-lock chamber 26 or carrousel chamber 60. The substrate 10 is in an upside-down position. As fare as the substrate is on a carrousel 55, similarly to figure 6, carrousel support 56 can arranged to position substrate surface 10' in the substrate plane so that no further height adjustment has to be made with reference to the position in the evaporation chamber 2, coating station 29 and processing station 28 as fare as all processes are designed to coat or process wafers in upside down position. Otherwise, further handlers 20 could be used to handover the wafer from load-lock 25 or any other station via first transfer opening 19' into evaporation chamber 2. Further handler 20' ' can be arranged to make the handover between evaporation chamber 2 via second transfer opening 19'' to a further process or coating chamber 29 which can be a coating chamber provided with a planar magnetron 52, comprising a target 53 surrounded by an anode 54 as shown in figure 7. Alternatively, instead of handler 20 and 20'' a handler 20' ' ' positioned in the evaporation chamber 2 could be used to make the handover into and from the evaporation chamber 2. For systems 1 having at least a part of processing chambers, coating chambers, or load-lock chambers arranged linearly instead of a carrousel a linear conveying system could be used.

Figure 8 and 9 show each a further embodiment of an

inventive substrate holder both showing the respective substrate holder 30', 30' ' in top view and front view projections with substrate frames 31', 31' ' swivel-mounted with frame hinges 63 to the holder. The holder frames 31', 31' ' are shown in each figure above with the top view in horizontal position 2 and below with the front view in oblique position 1. The angle between the substrate- and/or loading plane SP, LP and the oblique substrate plane SP' namely for the three-sided pyramid formed by substrate frames 31' in figure 8 and b for the six-sided truncated pyramid (substrate frames 31'') in figure 9 are = 17° or b = 20° .

Figure 8 shows a substrate holder 30' with three substrate frames 31' which form in lowered position 1 the sidewalls of a three-sided pyramid with pyramid corners cut in the base region of the pyramid to avoid unnecessary need of vacuum space and substrate planes SP' , SP' ' and SP' ' ' (not shown) cutting at the rotational axis R, R' of the holder (top of the pyramid) . The same applies to the six substrate frames 31' ' from figure 9 which form a six-sided truncated pyramid in lowered position 1. With figure 9 wafers 10' ' are shown projecting respective substrate frames 31' ' in an outward radial direction. In addition substrate holder 30' ' comprises a central substrate frame 30 horizontally fixed to the holder with a respective wafer 10. Such central substrate frame 30 can be designed having two frames with features as discussed in detail with figure 3 and

respective description.

It should be mentioned that despite of the fact both the frame lifter 62 and drive shaft 51' are shown to be movable in a vertical ( z- ) direction in figure 8, it would be

sufficient that one of these features are realized to move substrate frames from an oblique position into the

horizontal position in the load level plane LP. As however with a fixed frame lifter 62 load level plane LP will be lower, at the height of the frame lifter, a movable frame lifter is preferred. It should be mentioned that the drive shaft 51, 51' is always rotatable, whereas a holder shaft can be designed to be rotatable on or in the drive shaft or be mounted fixed, e.g. on the top of the evaporation chamber .

Alternative solutions to lower and rise substrate frames from and in a horizontal plane can comprise swiveling means at least partially or completely incorporated into the substrate holder 31 and/or the shaft 51, 51' . Such means may comprise respective gearing and or segments.

Contrary to Figure 7, where transfer openings 19', 19' 'are shown on opposite sides of the evaporation chamber, transfer openings of the same reference numbers are shown in a radial angle of 120° to each other. This angle

however, as will be easily understood by the man of art, can be varied from about ± 70° to ± 180° according to the size of the chamber and/or to the number of evaporation chambers, coating and processing stations to be arranged in a circular, a linear or a combined circular and linear system arrangement.

Figure 10 shows a scheme of a further inventive embodiment of a chamber comprising a multi-substrate holder with substrates circularly arranged on substrate frames 31', the latter forming the sides of a multi-sided pyramid or sectors of respective cones or calottes. In the drawing a three sided pyramidal design of the holder is shown

schematically, similar to the one shown in figure 8. In this embodiment however the holder drive shaft 51' and it's rotational axis R' ' is oblique towards the vertical and not in parallel as with other embodiments shown. The angle g against the perpendicular, which tilts one substrate plane SP towards the transfer opening should be chosen such that a substrate 10, which is turned into a position face to face to the transfer opening 19 is positioned in the load level plane LP parallel to the horizontal transfer plane TP. Thereby substrates 10 can be loaded and unloaded one by one by a handler in the second, here upper position in the load level plane LP, by a turn of the drive shaft 51', without the need of swiveling substrate frames and frame- lifter, and means to move the shaft or frame-lifter into a vertical direction need not be provided. In this embodiment any other substrate positions are first positions with substrate planes oriented downwards from a horizontal plane, here the load level plane. With such a design angle Y will be a second acute angel of essentially the same size as and b, i.e. angle g can be chosen from about 10° to 30° or 15° to 25°, e.g. about 17°±2° for a 3-sided

pyramidal arrangement as shown or 20°±2° for a 6-sided pyramidal arrangement. Such embodiments of an evaporation chamber can be combined with any systems where loading and unloading is carried out via the same transfer opening 19, e.g. with figures 1, 2 and 5. It should be mentioned that a vertical offset of the crucible from the projection of the center of the holder 30', i.e. where all frames are fixed to the drive shaft 51', to the bottom of the chamber is convenient (not shown in this drawing) for any such oblique multi-substrate holder arrangements due to the elliptical projection of the outmost position of the circumference of the moving substrate 10. Therefor the crucible 18 could be positioned away from the projection of the center into the direction of the transfer opening, e.g. in the middle of the projected ellipsis on the bottom of the evaporation chamber .

The use of the terms perpendicular, vertical and horizontal are applied under consideration that usual evaporation chambers and systems are set up with the bottom and top of the chamber (s) at least essentially in a horizontal

orientation and the side walls at least essentially in a vertical orientation. Any variations to such positioning which still complete one or more essential tasks of the present invention, like inter alia good integration of an evaporation chamber into existing multi-chamber systems, are considered to fall within the gist of the actual invention .

In the following different embodiments of inventive

evaporation chambers are listed. Each of the embodiments would be adapted to be used within an inventive evaporation system:

1) Evaporation chamber having a bottom (3) , a top

(4), and at least one sidewall (5) comprising further

- a high vacuum pump system (6) connected to the

evaporation chamber (2) by a pump socket (7);

- at least one evaporation crucible (8) arranged in or at the bottom (3) of the chamber (2);

- a substrate holder (30, 30', 30'') for an

essentially planar substrate (10), having a substrate surface (10') to be coated, mounted to hold the substrate (10) in a substrate plane (SP) in an upper region of the chamber (2);

- an evaporator housing (12) comprising the crucible (8) and an energy source (17), to evaporate material (18) which has been furnished into the crucible, the material having a material surface (18'), the housing having a cover plate (13) with an aperture (14) which is spaced from the crucible (8) in an upwards direction and a shutter (15) arranged to close the aperture (14);

- at least one transfer opening (19) on at least one side wall in the upper region of the evaporation chamber . 2) Evaporation chamber according to embodiment 1 wherein the substrate holder is configured to hold one single or up to 15 planar substrates (10) .

3) Evaporation chamber according to one of the

preceding embodiments wherein the substrate holder (30) comprises at least one substrate frame (31, 31', 31'') having a substrate support (32) arranged in a substrate plane (SP) .

4) Evaporation chamber according to embodiment 3

wherein the support comprises at least one

retaining means (36, 37, 64) .

5) Evaporation chamber according to embodiment 3 or 4 wherein the substrate frame comprises a pair of fingers (33) forming a circular port (34), whereby the circumference enclosed by the fingers is between 180° and 210° , whereby a sideways mouth (35) between the fingertips is arranged to be positioned in a direction towards the transfer opening(s) (19, 19', 19'').

6) Evaporation chamber according to one of the

preceding embodiments wherein the chamber

comprises a drive shaft (51, 51') to rotate the substrate holder (30, 30', 30'') and/or the substrate frame (31). ) Evaporation chamber according to embodiment 6 wherein an axis (R, R' , R' ' ) of the drive shaft (51, 51') is oriented perpendicular or in a second acute angle (g) to the perpendicular. ) Evaporation chamber according to one of

embodiments 3 to 7 wherein the substrate frame (31) is horizontally oriented or/and the holder (30, 30', 30'') comprises a plurality of further substrate frames (31', 31'') circularly arranged round rotational axis R, R' , whereby further substrate frames (31', 31'') can be arranged in a first position to define further substrate planes (SP' , SP' ' ) oriented downwards from axis R, R' at a first acute angle ( , b) to a horizontal plane (TP, LP) . ) Evaporation chamber according to one of

embodiments 7 or 8 wherein the first or/and second angle ( , b, y) have a size from 10° to 30°. 0) Evaporation chamber according to one of

embodiments 8 or 9 wherein further substrate frames (31', 31'') can be arranged in a second position in a horizontal plane. 1) Evaporation chamber according to embodiment 10 wherein the further substrate frames (31', 31'') are mounted swiveling to the substrate holder ) Evaporation chamber according to one of

embodiments 10 to 11 wherein the substrate chamber comprises swiveling means (51, 51', 62, 63) to move further substrate frames (31') from position

1 to position 2 and vice versa. ) Evaporation chamber according to embodiment 12 wherein the swiveling means comprise hinges (63) connecting further substrate frames (31') with substrate holder (30). ) Evaporation chamber according to one of

embodiments 12 to 13 wherein the swiveling means comprise at least one frame lifter (62), and a holder shaft and/or drive shaft (51, 51') _/ whereby at least one of the frame lifter, or the holder shaft and/or drive shaft (51, 51') is mounted movable in a vertical direction. ) Evaporation chamber according to embodiment 14 wherein the frame lifter (62) is mounted to a sidewall (5) or the bottom (3) of the evaporation chamber (2 ) . ) Evaporation chamber according to one of

embodiments 12 to 13 wherein the swiveling means comprise a geared or/and segmented transmission from the drive shaft (51') to the further frames 17) Evaporation chamber according to one of

embodiments 3 to 16 wherein the substrate holder (30) comprises adjustment means (39, 48, 49) to adjust the height of the substrate frame (31) .

18) Evaporation chamber according to one of the

preceding embodiments wherein the transfer opening comprises a vacuum lock (19) .

19) Evaporation chamber according to one of the

preceding embodiments wherein the energy source (17) is a heater, a laser device or an e-beam gun.

20) Evaporation chamber according to embodiment 19

wherein the energy source is a scannable e-beam gun (11) .

21) Evaporation chamber according to one of the

preceding embodiments wherein the aperture (14) is dimensioned and positioned in a distance between the crucible and the substrate surface (10') such that an evaporation cone (V) covers at least the complete surface area (10') to be coated or an area which is bigger.

22) Evaporation chamber according to one of the

preceding embodiments wherein the aperture (14) is positioned in a distance from 100 to 350 mm from the material surface (18') whereby the substrate frame is arranged to position the substrate surface (10' ) in an evaporation distance from 400 to 1500 mm.

23) Evaporation chamber according to one of the

preceding embodiments wherein a measurement system (42) is arranged in or at the evaporation chamber (2) in line of sight to at least a part of the surface (18') of the material (18) to be evaporated from the crucible (8) .

24) Evaporation chamber according to embodiment 23 wherein a measurement opening (16) is provided in an upper part of the evaporator housing (12) to provide a line of sight to the measurement system

(42) .

25) Evaporation chamber according to embodiment 23 or 24 wherein the measurement system is a micro crystal balance (42).

26) Evaporation chamber according to one of the

preceding embodiments wherein that a plasma source

(43) is arranged in the evaporation chamber.

In the following different embodiments of an inventive evaporation system are listed. Each of the embodiments of the evaporation system can be combined with at least one or more, or even all of the forgoing embodiments 1 to 26 of the evaporation chamber or any other feature as disclosed in the description or figures, even if not described explicitly as a possible combination therein, as long as man of the art would not estimate such a combination as prima facie illogical: a) Evaporation system comprising an evaporation

chamber (2) according to one of the preceding embodiments 1 to 26 wherein the system (1) further comprises at least one handler (20, 20', 20'', 20''') configured to transfer the substrate in a horizontal transfer plane (TP) in or/and out of the chamber (2) via the transfer opening (19, 19', 19'') and the system comprises at least one vacuum lock (25, 38) . b) Evaporation system according to embodiment a)

wherein the transfer plane (TP) is situated between a horizontal load level plane (LP) comprising at least one substrate frame (31, 31', 31'') and the top (4) of the chamber (2). c) Evaporation system according to one of embodiments a) to b) wherein the handler (20, 20'', 20''') is configured to lower/lift the substrate (10, 10'') to/from the at least one substrate frame (31, 31', 31'') in the load level plane (LP) from/to the transfer plane (TP) . d) Evaporation system according to one of embodiments a) to c) wherein the handler (20, 20', 20'', 20''') comprises a transfer means (21) to

transport the substrate. e) Evaporation system according to one of embodiments a) to d) wherein the handler (20) is positioned in a central handler chamber (22) between at least one load-lock (25) and at least one evaporation chamber (2 ) . f) Evaporation system according to one of embodiments a) to e) wherein the handler (20, 20', 20'',

20''') comprises a vertical rotational axis (HA) and at least one handling arm (24) comprising radial kinetic means. g) Evaporation system according to one of embodiments a) to f) wherein the evaporation chamber comprises a first transfer opening (19') and a second transfer opening (19'') arranged on different sides (5) of the evaporation chamber and a first handler (20) is configured to transfer the

substrate into the evaporation chamber via the first transfer opening (19') and a second handler (20'') is configured to transfer the substrate out of the evaporation chamber via the second transfer opening (19'') or a further handler (20''') is arranged in the evaporation chamber to transfer the substrate (10) into and out of the chamber. h) Evaporation system according to embodiment g) wherein at least one of the first and second handler or the further handler (20''') is a linear handler (20', 20' ' ) or a part of a linear

transport system (40) . i) Evaporation system according to one of embodiments a) to h) wherein the evaporation system comprises a substrate flipper (41) to turn the substrate upside down and/or up. j) Evaporation system according to embodiment i)

wherein the flipper (41) is arranged in a flow direction before the transfer opening (19, 19', 19'') outside the chamber (2) . k) Evaporation system according to one of embodiments i) and j) wherein the flipper (41) is arranged in an atmospheric handling station (57) .

List of reference numbers

1 evaporation system

2 evaporation chamber

3 bottom of the evaporation chamber

4 top of the evaporation chamber

5 sidewall (s) of the evaporation chamber

6 pump system for the evaporation chamber

7 pump socket

8 evaporation crucible

9 evaporator

10, 10' ' substrate

10' substrate surface

11 evaporator housing

12 sidewall (s) of the housing

13 cover plate

14 aperture

14' distribution shield

15 shutter

16 measurement opening

17 energy source

18 material

18' material surface

19 transfer opening

19', 19' ' 1 ^st , 2 ^nd transfer opening

20, 20", 20'" handler

20' atmospheric handler

21 transfer fork

22 handler chamber

23 vacuum pump system for the handler chamber

24 handling arm

25 load-lock

26 load-lock chamber

26' load-lock support

27 FOUP box

28 processing station

29 coating station

30 substrate holder

31 substrate frame

32 substrate support (step, nib, ..)

33 pair of fingers

34 circular port

35 sideways mouth

36 retaining step

37 retaining nib 38 valve

39 adjustment means to adjust the height of the substrate frame

40 linear transport system

41 substrate flipper

42 measurement system

43 plasma source

44 line of sight window

45 beam diversion, deflection means

46 monitoring window

47 upper frame

48 distance rod

49 fixing means, screws

50 holder drive

51, 51' drive shaft, holder shaft

52 planar magnetron

53 target

54 anode

55 carrousel

56 carrousel support

57 atmospheric handling station

58 system entrance / exit

59 interface

60 carrousel chamber

61 carrousel load-lock section

62 frame lifter

63 frame hinge

64 substrate clamp

65

HA handler axis

LP load level plane

P plasma

R, R' rotational axis (substrate holder)

R' ' oblique rotational axis

SP substrate plane (horizontally)

SP' substrate plane (oblique against a horizonal plane)

TP transfer plane

t transport direction

V vapor cone