Apparatus and method for speckle reduction in laser processing equipment
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorStephen Moffatt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Embodiments described herein provide apparatus and methods for processing semiconductor substrates with uniform laser energy. A laser pulse or beam is directed to a spatial homogenizer, which may be a plurality of lenses arranged along a plane perpendicular to the optical path of the laser energy, an example being a microlens array. The spatially uniformized energy produced by the spatial homogenizer is then directed to a refractive medium that has a plurality of thicknesses. Each thickness of the plurality of thicknesses is different from the other thicknesses by at least the coherence length of the laser energy.
Claims12
An apparatus for improving energy uniformity of coherent light, comprising:
- a plurality of lenses positioned to produce a composite projection field;
- and
- a refractive medium having one or more first surfaces and one or more second surfaces, wherein each second surface is located at one or more distances from the one or more first surfaces, and the refractive medium is positioned to receive the composite projection field at the one or more first surfaces and to transmit an energy field from the one or more second surfaces, or the refractive medium is positioned to receive the composite projection field at the one or more second surfaces and to transmit the energy field from the one or more first surfaces, wherein the refractive medium is a plurality of plates.
An apparatus for improving energy uniformity of coherent light, comprising:
- a plurality of lenses positioned to produce a composite projection field;
- and
- a refractive medium having one or more first surfaces and one or more second surfaces, wherein each second surface is located at one or more distances from the one or more first surfaces, and the refractive medium is positioned to receive the composite projection field at the one or more first surfaces and to transmit an energy field from the one or more second surfaces, or the refractive medium is positioned to receive the composite projection field at the one or more second surfaces and to transmit the energy field from the one or more first surfaces, wherein the refractive medium is a plurality of rods.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.