The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 27, 2009
Filed:
Sep. 26, 2005
Paul E. Bakeman, Jr., Shelburne, VT (US);
Paul E. Bakeman, Jr., Shelburne, VT (US);
Ultratech, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
Apparatus for and methods of thermally processing undoped or lightly doped semiconductor wafers () that typically are not very absorptive of an annealing radiation beam () are disclosed. The apparatus () uses a relatively low power activating radiation beam () with a photon energy greater than the bandgap energy of the semiconductor substrate in order to generate free carriers () at and near the substrate surface (). The free carriers so generated enhance the absorption by the substrate surface of the longer wavelength annealing radiation beam. The annealing radiation beam is thus able to rapidly heat the substrate surface and permit subsequent rapid cooling to obtain, for example, a high level of electrical activity (activation) of dopants () formed therein. The invention obviates the need to pre-heat the substrate in order to increase absorption of the annealing radiation beam when performing thermal processing.