Stacked thermal processing chamber modules for remote radiative heating in semiconductor device manufacture

Abstract

Stacked thermal process chamber module for remote radiative heating of semiconductor device workpieces. A stacked thermal process module may include a stack of thermal process chambers and one or more generators of electromagnetic radiation. The electromagnetic radiation may be transported from a generator remote from the process chambers through one or more waveguides, thereby minimizing the volume and/or cleanroom footprint of the stacked thermal process chamber module. A waveguide may terminate in a process chamber so that electromagnetic radiation delivered during a thermal process may be coupled into one or more materials of the workpiece. The radiative heating process may overcome many of the limitations of thermal process chambers that instead employ a local heat source located within a process chamber.