Apparatus and methods for improving the intensity profile of a beam image used to process a substrate
AssigneeUltratech, Inc.
InventorsAndrew M. Hawryluk, Boris Grek, David A. Markle
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and apparatuses are provided for improving the intensity profile of a beam image used to process a semiconductor substrate. At least one photonic beam may be generated and manipulated to form an image having an intensity profile with an extended uniform region useful for thermally processing the surface of the substrate. The image may be scanned across the surface to heat at least a portion of the substrate surface to achieve a desired temperature within a predetermined dwell time. Such processing may achieve a high efficiency due to the large proportion of energy contained in the uniform portion of the beam.
Claims11
A method for processing a semiconductor substrate, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) generating at least one photonic beam capable of forming a putative unmodified image having a substantially uniform intensity profile over a useful portion thereof on the substrate surface, wherein the useful portion of putative unmodified image has an energy utilization;
- (b) modifying the intensity profile of the at least one photonic beam to form an actual image on a surface of the substrate, the image having a substantially uniform intensity profile over a useful portion thereof, wherein the useful portion of the actual image has an energy utilization that is at least 30% greater than the energy utilization of a useful portion of the putative unmodified image;
- and
- (c) scanning the image across the substrate surface to heat at least a portion of the substrate at and/or near the surface to achieve a desired temperature within a predetermined dwell time, D.
A method for processing a semiconductor substrate, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) generating two or more photonic beams, wherein at least one beam has a nonuniform intensity profile;
- (b) combining the beams in a substantially coherently noninterfering manner to form a contiguous image exhibiting a substantially uniform intensity profile over a useful portion thereof on a surface of the substrate;
- and
- (c) scanning the image across the surface of the substrate to heat at least a portion of the substrate at and/or near the surface to achieve a desired surface temperature within a predetermined dwell time, D.
A method for processing a semiconductor substrate, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) generating two or more photonic beams, wherein each beam is capable of forming a corresponding putative image having a substantially uniform intensity profile over a useful portion thereof on the substrate surface and the useful portions of the putative images have a total energy utilization;
- (b) combining the beams in a substantially coherently noninterfering manner to form a contiguous image for heating a surface of the substrate, wherein the contiguous image has a substantially uniform intensity profile over a useful portion thereof and the useful portion of the contiguous image has an energy utilization that is at least 30% greater than the total energy utilization of the useful portions of the putative images;
- and
- (c) scanning the contiguous image across the surface of the substrate to heat at least a portion of the substrate at and/or near the surface to achieve a desired temperature within a predetermined dwell time, D.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.