Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100084744 | Thermal processing of substrates with pre- and post-spike temperature control - Provided are apparatuses and method for the thermal processing of a substrate surface, e.g., controlled laser thermal annealing (LTA) of substrates. The invention typically involves irradiating the substrate surface with first and second images to process regions of the substrate surface at a substantially uniform peak processing temperature along a scan path. A first image may serve to effect spike annealing of the substrates while another may be used to provide auxiliary heat treatment to the substrates before and/or after the spike annealing. Control over the temperature profile of the prespike and/or postspike may also reduce stresses and strains generated in the wafers. Also provided are microelectronic devices formed using the inventive apparatuses and methods. | 04-08-2010 |
20110298093 | Thermal Processing of Substrates with Pre- and Post-Spike Temperature Control - Provided are apparatuses and method for the thermal processing of a substrate surface, e.g., controlled laser thermal annealing (LTA) of substrates. The invention typically involves irradiating the substrate surface with first and second images to process regions of the substrate surface at a substantially uniform peak processing temperature along a scan path. A first image may serve to effect spike annealing of the substrates while another may be used to provide auxiliary heat treatment to the substrates before and/or after the spike annealing. Control over the temperature profile of the prespike and/or postspike may also reduce stresses and strains generated in the wafers. Also provided are microelectronic devices formed using the inventive apparatuses and methods. | 12-08-2011 |
20120100640 | Systems and methods for forming a time-averaged line image - Systems and methods for forming a time-average line image are disclosed. The method includes forming a line image with a first amount of intensity non-uniformity. The method also includes forming and scanning a secondary image over at least a portion of the line image to form a time-averaged modified line image having a second amount of intensity non-uniformity that is less than the first amount. Wafer emissivity is measured in real time to control the intensity of the secondary image. Temperature is also measured in real time based on the wafer emissivity and reflectivity of the secondary image, and can be used to control the intensity of the secondary image. | 04-26-2012 |
20120100728 | Systems and methods for forming a time-averaged line image - Systems and methods for forming a time-averaged line image having a relatively high amount of intensity uniformity along its length is disclosed. The method includes forming at an image plane a line image having a first amount of intensity non-uniformity in a long-axis direction and forming a secondary image that at least partially overlaps the primary image. The method also includes scanning the secondary image over at least a portion of the primary image and in the long-axis direction according to a scan profile to form a time-average modified line image having a second amount of intensity non-uniformity in the long-axis direction that is less than the first amount. For laser annealing a semiconductor wafer, the amount of line-image overlap for adjacent scans of a wafer scan path is substantially reduced, thereby increasing wafer throughput. | 04-26-2012 |
20120111838 | Thermal Processing of Substrates with Pre- and Post-Spike Temperature Contro - Provided are apparatuses and method for the thermal processing of a substrate surface, e.g., controlled laser thermal annealing (LTA) of substrates. The invention typically involves irradiating the substrate surface with first and second images to process regions of the substrate surface at a substantially uniform peak processing temperature along a scan path. A first image may serve to effect spike annealing of the substrates while another may be used to provide auxiliary heat treatment to the substrates before and/or after the spike annealing. Control over the temperature profile of the prespike and/or postspike may also reduce stresses and strains generated in the wafers. Also provided are microelectronic devices formed using the inventive apparatuses and methods. | 05-10-2012 |
20140151344 | Movable microchamber system with gas curtain - A movable microchamber system with a gas curtain is disclosed. The microchamber system has a top member with a light-access feature and a stage assembly that supports a substrate to be processed. The stage assembly is disposed relative to the top member to define a microchamber and a peripheral microchamber gap. An inert gas is flowed into the peripheral microchamber gap to form the gas curtain just outside of the microchamber. The gas curtain substantially prevents reactive gas in the ambient environment from entering the microchamber when the stage assembly moves relative to the top member. | 06-05-2014 |
20140166632 | Dual-loop control for laser annealing of semiconductor wafers - Systems and methods for performing semiconductor laser annealing using dual loop control are disclosed. The first control loop operates at a first frequency and controls the output of the laser and controls the 1/f laser noise. The second control loop also controls the amount of output power in the laser and operates at second frequency lower than the first frequency. The second control loop measures the thermal emission of the wafer over an area the size of one or more die so that within-die emissivity variations are average out when determining the measured annealing temperature. The measured annealing temperature and an annealing temperature set point are used to generate the control signal for the second control loop. | 06-19-2014 |
20150371911 | Systems and methods for reducing beam instability in laser annealing - Systems and methods for reducing beam instability in laser annealing are disclosed. The method includes: directing a conditioned laser beam through an opening in an aperture using a beam-redirecting element; forming a line image on the surface of the semiconductor wafer by imaging the aperture onto the surface, thereby locally heating the surface to form an annealing temperature distribution; detecting a thermal emission from the locally heated wafer surface; determining the annealing temperature distribution from the detected thermal emission; determining from the annealing temperature distribution a line-image intensity profile that includes a time-varying amount of slope; and adjusting the beam-redirecting element to redirect the laser beam to reduce or eliminate the time-varying amount of slope in the line-image intensity profile. | 12-24-2015 |