Cylindrical Substrate Support for Uniform ICE Layer Deposition
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for fabricating integrated computational elements (ICEs) face challenges in achieving uniform deposition rates and accurate layer characteristics due to mismatched support shapes and deposition plume profiles, leading to non-uniformities and operational inefficiencies in optical analysis tools for wellbore fluid analysis.
Innovation Solution
The use of a support shaped and arranged to match the spatial profile of the deposition plume, ensuring uniform deposition rates and characteristics across the ICEs, thereby improving the accuracy and efficiency of ICE fabrication and reducing the need for extensive monitoring.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If conventional fabrication methods are used with standard support shapes, then the fabrication process is simple, but the deposition rates are non-uniform and layer characteristics are inaccurate
Solution Approach 1:
The support structure is designed with spatially varying properties - specifically, a cylindrical shape that matches the deposition plume profile - so that different regions of the support receive uniform deposition. This local adaptation of the support geometry to the deposition characteristics resolves the contradiction between manufacturing precision and device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the geometric parameters of the support from conventional flat or simple shapes to a cylindrical configuration that specifically matches the spatial profile of the deposition plume. This parameter change enables uniform deposition rates across the substrate, improving layer characteristics while maintaining reasonable fabrication complexity.
2Stability of the object's composition
If conventional flat supports are used, then the support structure is simple, but the deposition uniformity across substrates is poor
Solution Approach 1:
The invention employs a cylindrical (curved) support surface instead of a flat support. This curvature matches the spatial profile of the deposition plume, ensuring that all substrates placed on the support receive uniform deposition. The curved geometry compensates for the natural non-uniformity of the deposition process, achieving stable and uniform composition across all substrates.
3Manufacturing precision
If extensive monitoring locations are used during fabrication, then deposition uniformity can be verified, but the fabrication process becomes more complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The support geometry is pre-designed to match the deposition plume spatial profile, which ensures uniform deposition before the actual fabrication process begins. This preliminary design of the support structure eliminates the need for extensive real-time monitoring and adjustments during fabrication, thereby improving both precision and productivity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach results in more accurate and efficient ICE fabrication with uniform optical and physical characteristics, increasing yield and allowing for representative monitoring at fewer locations, thus enhancing the performance of optical analysis tools for wellbore fluid analysis.
Implementation Method 1
a deposition source for forming layers on the substrates, where the support is shaped and arranged relative to the deposition source such that a shape of the support corresponds to a spatial profile of a deposition plume provided by the deposition source
Data Source
AI summary
A system includes a computational system to receive a design of an integrated computational element (ICE) including specification of substrate and layers. Additionally, the system includes a deposition source to provide a deposition plume having a plume spatial profile, and a support having a cylindrical surface. The cylindrical surface of the support is spaced apart from the deposition source and has a shape that corresponds to the plume spatial profile in a particular cross-section orthogonal to a longitudinal axis of the cylindrical surface of the support, such that, when the substrate support, with the supported instances of the substrate distributed over the cylindrical surface of the substrate support, is translated relative to the deposition plume along the longitudinal axis of the cylindrical surface of the substrate support, thicknesses of instances of each of the deposited layers are substantially uniform across the plurality of instances of the ICE.