Rapid Thermal Annealing System with Controlled Temperature Gradient and Annealing Time

Rapid thermal annealing (RTA) has been widely used in microelectronics fabrications. The current RTA system only provides uniform temperature distribution across the whole annealing chamber at any given time. Therefore, it greatly limits the implementation of combinatorial methodology in one single trial. This SBIR Phase 1 proposal investigates the feasibility of developing a temperature-time gradient RTA system by using a combination of distributed lamp heating and cold finger cooling. The successful development of this technology will create a new type of RTA system that can generate prescribed temperature gradient and controlled annealing time for different areas across the wafer. This new RTA system will enable the implementation of the combinatorial method that will greatly improve the efficiency and throughput of the experimentations on the process development and optimization. COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: The RTA system developed through this project is capable of generating prescribed temperature gradient over the processed wafer and controlling the annealing time across the wafer, thus enables the implementation of the combinatorial method for processing and characterization of thin film electronic materials. This is an ideal tool for researchers on RTA process development and optimization in all sorts of application areas. There is a niche market for this new RTA system among research organizations, industrial development groups, and academic educational institutes.