UV curing system for semiconductors

A semiconductor wafer curing system comprising:

• a processing chamber;
• a wafer support configured for supporting a wafer in the processing chamber;
• a lamp housing disposed above the processing chamber;
• a conductive electrical trail mounted inside the lamp housing;
• a horizontally oriented partition plate disposed inside the lamp housing;
• an elongated horizontal slot provided in the partition plate;
• a movable motor carrier having an electric motor operable to travel along a linear path defined by the elongated horizontal slot inside the lamp housing, wherein the elongated horizontal slot having a length suitable to provide a full range of linear travel for the motor carrier, wherein the motor carrier receives power and control signals from the electrical trail;
• and
• a movable ultraviolet (UV) lamp carriage disposed inside the lamp housing and suspended above the processing chamber from the horizontally oriented partition plate, provided at a bottom of the motor carrier and emitting UV radiation, the UV lamp carriage being operable to move forward and backward along the conductive electrical trail and irradiate the wafer disposed on the wafer support while moving forward and backward along the conductive electrical trail whereby the UV lamp carriage travels across the wafer support along the linear path during a UV curing cycle to irradiate the wafer.

A semiconductor wafer curing system comprising:

• a processing chamber;
• a wafer support configured for supporting a wafer in the processing chamber;
• an ultraviolet (UV) lamp unit disposed above the processing chamber and emitting UV radiation having an intensity, the UV lamp unit being operable to emit UV radiation to irradiate a wafer disposed on the wafer support;
• and
• the processing chamber provided with a UV transparent window that is positioned between the UV lamp unit and the wafer on the wafer support, wherein the UV radiation impinges on higher and lower intensity regions on a side of the UV transparent window with higher and lower intensities of UV radiation, respectively;
• wherein the UV transparent window is configured to pass at least some of the UV radiation from the UV lamp unit, through the lower intensity region, and onto the wafer on the wafer support;
• wherein the UV transparent window includes a UV radiation modifying section;
• wherein the UV radiation modifying section has a surface area less than the surface area of the side of the UV transparent window and is localized to the higher intensity region of the UV transparent window, and reduces the intensity of the UV radiation passing through the radiation modifying section to the wafer;
• and
• wherein all portions of the wafer are irradiated substantially uniformly with relatively uniform UV intensity.