Coating formation by reactive deposition

Abstract

Light reactive deposition uses an intense light beam to form particles that are directly coated onto a substrate surface. In some embodiments, a coating apparatus comprising a noncircular reactant inlet, optical elements forming a light path, a first substrate, and a motor connected to the apparatus. The reactant inlet defines a reactant stream path. The light path intersects the reactant stream path at a reaction zone with a product stream path continuing from the reaction zone. The substrate intersects the product stream path. Also, operation of the motor moves the first substrate relative to the product stream. Various broad methods are described for using light driven chemical reactions to produce efficiently highly uniform coatings.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A method for coating a substrate comprising: 
 reacting a flowing reactant stream to form a stream of product particles; and    depositing at least a portion of the product particles onto a substrate at a deposition rate of at least about 5 g/hr.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the deposition rate is at least about 10 g/hr.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the deposition rate is from about 25 g/hr to about 5 kg/hr.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the reactant stream has a cross section perpendicular to the propagation direction characterized by a major axis and a minor axis, the major axis being at least a factor of two greater than the minor axis.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the depositing at least a portion of the product particles comprises moving the substrate relative to the stream of product particles.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the reacting of the flow is driven by a light beam.  
     
     
         7 . A method for coating a substrate comprising: 
 reacting a flowing reactant stream to form a stream of product particles; and    depositing a least a portion of the product particles onto a substrate, wherein the deposition of the product particles comprises moving the substrate relative to the stream of product particles at a rate of at least about 0.1 centimeters per second.    
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  wherein the deposition of the product particles comprises moving the substrate relative to the stream of product particles at a rate of at least about 0.5 centimeters per second.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7  wherein the deposition of the product particles comprises moving the substrate relative to the stream of product particles at a rate from about 1 centimeters per second to about 30 centimeters per second.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7  wherein reacting the reactant stream is driven by a radiation beam and wherein the reactant stream is elongated in a direction along the propagation direction of the radiation beam to produce a line of particles with the relative motion of the substrate sweeping at least a portion of the line of product particles across the substrate.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  wherein the radiation beam is generated by a light source.