US 8,026,519 B1Granted

Systems and methods for forming a time-averaged line image

AssigneeUltratech, Inc.

InventorsSerguei Anikitchev, James T. McWhirter, Joseph E. Gortych

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Abstract

Systems and methods for forming a time-averaged line image having a relatively high amount of intensity uniformity along its length is disclosed. The method includes forming at an image plane a line image having a first amount of intensity non-uniformity in a long-axis direction and forming a secondary image that at least partially overlaps the primary image. The method also includes scanning the secondary image over at least a portion of the primary image and in the long-axis direction according to a scan profile to form a time-average modified line image having a second amount of intensity non-uniformity in the long-axis direction that is less than the first amount. For laser annealing a semiconductor wafer, the amount of line-image overlap for adjacent scans of a wafer scan path is substantially reduced, thereby increasing wafer throughput.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A line-image-forming optical system, comprising:

a primary laser system configured to provide a first laser beam;
a beam-conditioning optical system having an image plane and configured to receive the first laser beam and form therefrom a line image at the image plane, the line image having a long axis and a first amount of intensity non-uniformity along the long axis;
one of:
a) a secondary laser system that generates a second laser beam, and b) a beam-splitting optical system configured to provide the second laser beam from a portion of the first laser beam;
and
a scanning optical system configured to receive the second laser beam and form therefrom a secondary image at the image plane, wherein the secondary image at least partially overlaps the line image and is scanned over at least a portion of the line image to form a time-averaged modified line image having a second amount of intensity non-uniformity that is less than the first amount.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.