Ultratech, Inc.

Ultratech Stepper, Inc.

The United States of America as Represented by the United States

Veeco Instruments Inc.

Photon Dynamics, Inc.

Other

University of California

The United States of America as Represented by the Department of Energy

Andrew M Hawryluk

Yun Yu Wang

David A Markle

Somit Talwar

Serguei Anikitchev

Ganesh Sundaram

Natale M Ceglio

Michael O Thompson

Boris Grek

Arthur W Zafiropoulo

Daniel G Stearns

David G Stites

Warren W Flack

Lynn G Seppala

Ritwik Bhatia

Robert L Hsieh

Yu Chue Fong

Khiem K Nguyen

Emily M True

David W Gardner

Weijian Wang

Richard A London

Hwan J Jeong

Troy W Barbee, Jr

Robert D Hempstead

Peiqian Zhao

James McWhirter

Stephen P Vernon

David M Owen

Xiaohua Shen

Raymond Ellis

Xiaoru Wang

Borislav Zlatanov

Serguei Anikitichev

Masoud Safa

Joe Gortych

James B Owens, Jr

Daniel S Stearns

Manish Ranjan

Serguel Anikitchev

Detlef Fuchs

Laser annealing systems and methods with ultra-short dwell times are disclosed. The method includes locally pre-heating the wafer with a pre-heat line image and then rapidly scanning an annealing image relative to the pre-heat line image to define a scanning overlap region that has a dwell time is in the range from 10 ns to 500 ns. These ultra-short dwell times are useful for performing surface or subsurface melt annealing of product wafers because they prevent the device structures from reflowing.

Laser annealing systems and methods with ultra-short dwell times

Methods disclosed herein include scanning a focus spot formed by a laser beam over either a metal layer or IC structures that include a metal and a non-metal. The focus spot is scanned over a scan path that includes scan path segments that partially overlap. The focus spot has an irradiance and a dwell time selected to locally melt the metal layer or locally melt the metal of the IC structures without melting the non-metal. This results in rapid melting and recrystallization of the metal, which decreases the resistivity of the metal and results in improved performance of the IC chips being fabricated. Also disclosed is an example laser melt system for carrying out methods disclosed herein is also disclosed.

Laser-based systems and methods for melt-processing of metal layers in semiconductor manufacturing

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is used for heteroepitaxial film growth at reaction temperatures ranging from 80-400&#xb0; C. The substrate and film materials are preferably matched to take advantage of Domain Matched Epitaxy (DME). A laser annealing system is used to thermally anneal deposition layer after deposition by ALD. In preferred embodiments, a silicon substrate is overlaid with an AlN nucleation layer and laser annealed. Thereafter a GaN device layer is applied over the AlN layer by an ALD process and then laser annealed. In a further example embodiment, a transition layer is applied between the GaN device layer and the AlN nucleation layer. The transition layer comprises one or more different transition material layers each comprising a AlGaN compound wherein the composition of the transition layer is continuously varied from AlN to GaN.

Method and apparatus for forming device quality gallium nitride layers on silicon substrates

Method and devices are disclosed for device manufacture of gallium nitride devices by growing a gallium nitride layer on a silicon substrate using Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) followed by rapid thermal annealing. Gallium nitride is grown directly on silicon or on a barrier layer of aluminum nitride grown on the silicon substrate. One or both layers are thermally processed by rapid thermal annealing. Preferably the ALD process use a reaction temperature below 550&#xb0; C. and preferable below 350&#xb0; C. The rapid thermal annealing step raises the temperature of the coating surface to a temperature ranging from 550 to 1500&#xb0; C. for less than 12 msec.

Formation of heteroepitaxial layers with rapid thermal processing to remove lattice dislocations

High-efficiency line-forming optical systems and methods for defect annealing and dopant activation are disclosed. The system includes a CO-based line-forming system configured to form at a wafer surface a first line image having between 2000 W and 3000 W of optical power. The line image is scanned over the wafer surface to locally raise the temperature up to a defect anneal temperature. The system can include a visible-wavelength diode-based line-forming system that forms a second line image that can scan with the first line image to locally raise the wafer surface temperature from the defect anneal temperature to a spike anneal temperature. Use of the visible wavelength for the spike annealing reduces adverse pattern effects and improves temperature uniformity and thus annealing uniformity.

High-efficiency line-forming optical systems and methods for defect annealing and dopant activation

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is used for heteroepitaxial film growth at reaction temperatures ranging from 80-400&#xb0; C. The substrate and film materials are preferably selected to take advantage of Domain Matched Epitaxy (DME). A laser annealing system is used to thermally anneal deposition layers after deposition by ALD. In preferred embodiments a silicon substrate is overlaid with an AIN nucleation layer and laser annealed. Thereafter a GaN device layers is applied over the AIN layer by an ALD process and then laser annealed. In a further example embodiment a transition layer is applied between the GaN device layer and the AIN nucleation layer. The transition layer comprises one or more different transition material layers each comprising a AlGacompound wherein the composition of the transition layer is continuously varied from AIN to GaN.

Laser annealing systems and methods for annealing a semiconductor wafer with ultra-short dwell times are disclosed. The laser annealing systems can include one or two laser beams that at least partially overlap. One of the laser beams is a pre-heat laser beam and the other laser beam is the annealing laser beam. The annealing laser beam scans sufficiently fast so that the dwell time is in the range from about 1 &#x3bc;s to about 100 &#x3bc;s. These ultra-short dwell times are useful for annealing product wafers formed from thin device wafers because they prevent the device side of the device wafer from being damaged by heating during the annealing process. Embodiments of single-laser-beam annealing systems and methods are also disclosed.

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.

Systems and methods for reducing beam instability in laser annealing

Methods of annealing a thin semiconductor wafer are disclosed. The methods allow for high-temperature annealing of one side of a thin semiconductor wafer without damaging or overheating heat-sensitive electronic device features that are either on the other side of the wafer or embedded within the wafer. The annealing is performed at a temperature below the melting point of the wafer so that no significant dopant redistribution occurs during the annealing process. The methods can be applied to activating dopants or to forming ohmic contacts.

Non-melt thin-wafer laser thermal annealing methods

A Wynne-Dyson projection lens for use in an ultraviolet optical lithography system is disclosed, wherein the projection lens is configured to have reduced susceptibility to damage from ultraviolet radiation. The projection lens utilizes lens elements that are made of optical glasses that are resistant to damage from ultraviolet radiation, but that also provide sufficient degrees of freedom to correct aberrations. The glass types used for the lens elements are selected from the group of optical glasses consisting of: fused silica, S-FPL51Y, S-FSL5Y, BSM51Y and BAL15Y.

Wynne-Dyson projection lens with reduced susceptibility to UV damage

Growing community of inventors

Los Altos, CA, United States of America

Andrew M Hawryluk