Applied Materials, Inc.

Dean C Jennings

Abhilash J Mayur

Bruce E Adams

Vijay Parihar

Mark Yam

Aaron Muir Hunter

Timothy N Thomas

Joseph Michael Ranish

Haifan Liang

Stephen Moffatt

Amir Hamed Al-Bayati

Kartik Ramaswamy

Kenneth S Collins

Andrew Nguyen

Hiroji Hanawa

Biagio Gallo

Alexander Goldin

Kai Ma

Paul A O'Brien

Vernon Behrens

Jiping Li

Samuel C Howells

Leonid Mark Tertitski

Ajit Balakrishna

Paul G Carey

William Schaffer

Wolfgang R Aderhold

Brian L Haas

Randhir P S Thakur

Majeed Foad

Sundar Ramamurthy

Vedapuram S Achutharaman

Benjamin B Bierman

Wendy H Yeh

Ryan C Boas

Chris D Bencher

Luc Van Autryve

Richard A Brough

Randhir P Thakur

Andreas G Hegedus

Brian C Lue

Balasubramanian Ramachandran

Sairaju Tallavarjula

Wen Teh Chang

Jonathan Simmons

Jonathon Simmons

Tarpan Dixit

Candy Ching-Fai Siu

Leonid M Teritski

Aaron Huntern

Haifan Lang

A thermal processing apparatus and method in which a first laser source, for example, a COemitting at 10.6 μm is focused onto a silicon wafer as a line beam and a second laser source, for example, a GaAs laser bar emitting at 808 nm is focused onto the wafer as a larger beam surrounding the line beam. The two beams are scanned in synchronism in the direction of the narrow dimension of the line beam to create a narrow heating pulse from the line beam when activated by the larger beam. The energy of GaAs radiation is greater than the silicon bandgap energy and creates free carriers. The energy of the COradiation is less than the silicon bandgap energy so silicon is otherwise transparent to it, but the long wavelength radiation is absorbed by the free carriers.

Annealing apparatus using two wavelengths of radiation

A thermal processing apparatus and method in which a first laser source, for example, a COemitting at 10.6 &#x3bc;m is focused onto a silicon wafer as a line beam and a second laser source, for example, a GaAs laser bar emitting at 808 nm is focused onto the wafer as a larger beam surrounding the line beam. The two beams are scanned in synchronism in the direction of the narrow dimension of the line beam to create a narrow heating pulse from the line beam when activated by the larger beam. The energy of GaAs radiation is greater than the silicon bandgap energy and creates free carriers. The energy of the COradiation is less than the silicon bandgap energy so silicon is otherwise transparent to it, but the long wavelength radiation is absorbed by the free carriers.

The present invention generally describes one ore more methods that are used to perform an annealing process on desired regions of a substrate. In one embodiment, an amount of energy is delivered to the surface of the substrate to preferentially melt certain desired regions of the substrate to remove unwanted damage created from prior processing steps (e.g., crystal damage from implant processes), more evenly distribute dopants in various regions of the substrate, and/or activate various regions of the substrate. The preferential melting processes will allow more uniform distribution of the dopants in the melted region, due to the increased diffusion rate and solubility of the dopant atoms in the molten region of the substrate. The creation of a melted region thus allows: 1) the dopant atoms to redistribute more uniformly, 2) defects created in prior processing steps to be removed, and 3) regions that have hyper-abrupt dopant concentrations to be formed.

Method of thermal processing structures formed on a substrate

The present invention generally relates to an optical system that is able to reliably deliver a uniform amount of energy across an anneal region contained on a surface of a substrate. The optical system is adapted to deliver, or project, a uniform amount of energy having a desired two-dimensional shape on a desired region on the surface of the substrate. Typically, the anneal regions may be square or rectangular in shape. Generally, the optical system and methods of the present invention are used to preferentially anneal one or more regions found within the anneal regions by delivering enough energy to cause the one or more regions to re-melt and solidify.

Apparatus and method of improving beam shaping and beam homogenization

The thermal processing device includes a stage, a continuous wave electromagnetic radiation source, a series of lenses, a translation mechanism, a detection module, a three-dimensional auto-focus, and a computer system. The stage is configured to receive a substrate thereon. The continuous wave electromagnetic radiation source is disposed adjacent the stage, and is configured to emit continuous wave electromagnetic radiation along a path towards the substrate. The series of lenses is disposed between the continuous wave electromagnetic radiation source and the stage, and are configured to condense the continuous wave electromagnetic radiation into a line of continuous wave electromagnetic radiation on a surface of the substrate. The translation mechanism is configured to translate the stage and the line of continuous wave electromagnetic radiation relative to one another. The detection module is positioned within the path, and is configured to detect continuous wave electromagnetic radiation.

Thermal processing by scanning a laser line beam

Annealing apparatus using two wavelengths of laser radiation

Annealing apparatus using two wavelengths of continuous wave laser radiation

Scanned laser light source

A method including introducing a species into a substrate including semiconductor material; and translating linearly focused electromagnetic radiation across a surface of the substrate, the electromagnetic radiation being sufficient to thermally influence the species. An apparatus including an electromagnetic radiation source; a stage having dimensions suitable for accommodating a semiconductor substrate within a chamber; an optical element disposed between the electromagnetic radiation source and the stage to focus radiation from the electromagnetic radiation source into a line having a length determined by the diameter of a substrate to be placed on the stage; and a controller coupled to the electromagnetic radiation source including machine readable program instructions that allow the controller to control the depth into which a substrate is exposed to the radiation.

Thermal flux annealing influence of buried species

A method and apparatus for decorrelating coherent light from a light source, such as a pulsed laser, in both time and space in an effort to provide intense and uniform illumination are provided. The techniques and apparatus described herein may be incorporated into any application where intense, uniform illumination is desired, such as pulsed laser annealing, welding, ablating, and wafer stepper illuminating.

Method and apparatus for decorrelation of spatially and temporally coherent light

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San Ramon, CA, United States of America

Dean C Jennings