Applied Materials, Inc.

Novellus Systems Incorporated

Mark Yam

Abhilash J Mayur

Dean C Jennings

Aaron Muir Hunter

Haifan Liang

Bruce E Adams

Joseph Michael Ranish

Vijay Parihar

Paul A O'Brien

Alexander Goldin

Vernon Behrens

Leonid Mark Tertitski

Gary Eugene Miner

Bruce W Peuse

Stephen Moffatt

Paul G Carey

William Schaffer

Timothy N Thomas

Khaled Ahmed

Christopher Sean Olsen

Majeed Foad

Yi Ma

Ajit Balakrishna

Shulin Wang

George D Kamian

Feng Wang

Wendy H Yeh

Kevin Laughton Cunningham

Alexey Goder

Toi Yue Becky Leung

Robert C McIntosh

Chris D Bencher

Luc Van Autryve

Richard A Brough

Alex Rubinchik

Steve Gentile

Sundar Ramamurthy

Aihua Chen

Krishnan Shrinivasan

Henry Ho

Brian L Haas

Peter A Knoot

Steven T Li

Abril Cabreros

Alexander M Rubinchik

Leonid M Teritski

Jason Mershon

Krishna Shrinivasan

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 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

The present invention relates to curing of semiconductor wafers. More particularly, the invention relates to cure chambers containing multiple cure stations, each featuring one or more UV light sources. The wafers are cured by sequential exposure to the light sources in each station. In some embodiments, the wafers remain stationary with respect to the light source during exposure. In other embodiments, there is relative movement between the light source and the wafer during exposure. The invention also provides chambers that may be used to independently modulate the cross-linking, density and increase in stress of a cured material by providing independent control of the wafer temperature and UV intensity.

Single-chamber sequential curing of semiconductor wafers

Annealing apparatus using two wavelengths of laser radiation

Annealing apparatus using two wavelengths of continuous wave laser radiation

Scanned laser light source

Methods used to perform an annealing process on desired regions of a substrate are disclosed. 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.

Thermal flux processing by scanning a focused line beam

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Monte Sereno, CA, United States of America

Mark Yam