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US 2016/0240408 A1Published application
Apparatus and Methods for Annealing Wafers
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsYi-Chao Wang, Yu-Chang Lin, Li-Ting Wang, Tai-Chun Huang, Pei-Ren Jeng, Tze-Liang Lee
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Abstract
A method includes performing an anneal on a wafer. The wafer includes a wafer-edge region, and an inner region encircled by the wafer-edge region. During the anneal, a first power applied on a portion of the wafer-edge region is at least lower than a second power for annealing the inner region.
Claims20
An apparatus for annealing a wafer, the apparatus comprising:
- a wafer holder;
- a laser beam generator configured to generate a laser beam;
- and
- a wafer-edge blocker comprising:
- a first partial ring;
- and
- a second partial ring physically disconnected from the first partial ring, wherein the wafer-edge blocker is configured to at least partially block the laser beam from reaching a portion of a wafer-edge region of the wafer, and the wafer-edge blocker is configured to allow the laser beam to reach an inner region of the wafer, and wherein the inner region of the wafer is encircled by the wafer-edge region.
4 more elements
An apparatus for annealing a wafer, the apparatus comprising:
- a wafer holder;
- a laser beam generator configured to generate a laser beam;
- a wafer-edge blocker on a path of the laser beam to a portion of a wafer, wherein the wafer-edge blocker is hollow, and comprises a passage therein;
- and
- a first and a second pipe connected to opposite ends of the passage in the wafer-edge blocker.
2 more elements
An apparatus for annealing a wafer, the apparatus comprising:
- a wafer holder;
- a laser beam generator configured to generate a laser beam;
- and
- a wafer-edge blocker disposed over the wafer holder, the wafer-edge blocker comprising:
- a first partial ring;
- and
- a second partial ring physically disconnected from the first partial ring, wherein the first partial ring and the second partial ring are configured to block the laser beam from reaching a wafer-edge region of the wafer, with the wafer-edge region forming a full ring encircling an inner region of the wafer, and the wafer-edge blocker is configured to allow the laser beam to scan an entirety of the inner region.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.