Flash assisted annealing
View Patent ↗The present disclosure relates to a rapid thermal processing system that may be useful for processing semiconductor devices. A flash lamp may be utilized to provide pulse heating of a semiconductor for annealing or other purposes. A sensor may be provided to sense a characteristic of a semiconductor when a pre-pulse is applied to the semiconductor. Subsequent pulses may then be adjusted based on the characteristic sensed by the sensor.
1. A method comprising:
heating a wafer to a first temperature;
sensing the temperature of said heated wafer within a processing chamber in response to a monitor pulse from a pulse heat source; and
heating the wafer with additional pulses from the pulse heat source based, in part, on the sensed temperature of the wafer, said additional pulses having a higher amplitude than said monitor pulse.
2. The method of claim 1 , including sensing the temperature of the wafer having a frontside and a backside.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein sensing the temperature of the wafer includes sensing the temperature of the frontside of the object.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein sensing the temperature of the wafer includes sensing the temperature of the backside of the wafer.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein sensing the temperature of the wafer includes sensing the reflectivity of the wafer.
6. The method of claim 1 , heating the wafer with additional pulses from the pulse heat source includes heating the wafer with pulses from a lamp.