Ushio Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Satoru Fukuda

Tetsuji Arai

Yoshiki Mimura

Nobuyuki Hishinuma

Shinji Sugioka

Hiroshi Shimizu

A dielectric barrier discharge lamp device which allows ultraviolet rays to be uniformly radiated onto a workpiece having a large surface area and which can be easily adapted to the size of workpiece. In the dielectric barrier, at least one dielectric barrier discharge lamp is arranged in a hermetically sealed casing which has a hollow longitudinally extending main part that is closed at both ends by end parts, at least a portion of the main part of the casing defining a window allowing light radiated from the at least one dielectric barrier discharge lamp to pass therethrough onto the workpiece. At least one end part of the casing is provided with a passage allowing inert gas to be introduced into the casing, and at least one end part of the casing is adapted to allow loading or unloading of the at least one dielectric barrier discharge lamp. A plurality of casings are arranged side by side with their windows facing the workpiece to be irradiated.

Dielectric barrier discharge lamp device

A dielectric-barrier discharge lamp device that can reliably prevent leakage of the coolant fluid used to cool the dielectric-barrier discharge lamp, and that can reliably cool the dielectric-barrier discharge lamp, is achieved by the dielectric-barrier discharge lamp device having a dielectric-barrier discharge lamp ( ) with a hollow-cylinder-shaped discharge space (P) formed by an outer tube ( ) that is roughly cylindrical in external shape and a co-axial inner tube ( ), in which the inner tube ( ) has a cylindrical tube extension ( A) that extends outward from the discharge space ( ), and in which the outer periphery of the end ( A ) of the tube extension ( A) is held tightly by a coupler fitting ( ) connected to a guide tube ( ) through which a coolant fluid flows.

Dielectric barrier discharge lamp device with coupler for coolant fluid flow

A flashlight-radiant apparatus is constructed of a housing defining an object-handling space and an irradiation space located adjacent to the object-handling space, a plurality of flash discharge lamps provided side by side in an upper part of the irradiation space, a gas-discharging member provided in the upper part of the irradiation space for controlling the atmosphere of the housing, and an object-supporting table movable reciprocally between the object-handling space and the irradiation space in the housing and equipped with built-in subsidiary heating. An object, for example, a silicon wafer is preheated on the object-supporting table while the object-supporting table is located in the object-handling space. The flashlight-radiant apparatus has a simple structure, enjoys a high level of handling safety, assures long service life for its flash discharge lamps, and is suitable particularly for annealing semiconductor wafers.

Flashlight-radiant apparatus

Disclosed herein are a heater assembly and a method for heat-treating a semiconductor wafer using the same. The heater assembly is formed of a heating device having a ring-shaped portion and a holder combined with the heating device detachably each other. A wafer material such as a semiconductor wafer is held on the holder of the heater assembly. A heat-treatment is effected by heating the wafer material by means of application of light radiated from a light source, which is formed of one or more lamps, while heating or after having heated the circumferential portion of the wafer by the heating device of the heater assembly. Owing to the subsidiary heating of the circumferential portion, the wafer may be heat-treated at substantially the same temperature in its entirety. Thus, the heat-treatment does not develop such large 'warping' impairing subsequent treatment and/or treatment of the wafer or 'slip lines'. The heater assembly may be used successfully and conveniently in effecting uniform heating. The detachable structural feature of the holder facilitates its cleaning and this is effective in keeping the atmosphere of the irradiation space always clean.

Growing community of inventors

Himeji, Japan

Satoru Fukuda