Multichamber RTP system

10/01/1998

Multichamber RTP system

The AST EVOLUTION rapid thermal processing (RTP) tool is an advanced multichamber system, whose primary application - in the advanced configuration - is gate-stack formation, integrating pre-clean, RTO, and RTCVD modules. In its basic configuration, the system runs 200-mm/0.18- and 0.15-?m standard RTP applications such as silicide formation and implant anneal. The RTP module features a rotating, all-quartz process chamber for cleanliness and process flexibility. Pattern effects are reduced, due to the dual-side heating with top and bottom heater banks, and heating efficiency is increased to allow high ramp rates. EVOLUTION uses a backside-independent temperature measurement that actively compensates for emissivity variations on the wafer backside. Combined with the independent lamp control and wafer rotation design, it ensures temperature uniformities of better than 2.5?C (?), all points, all wafers. The system features Carousel, which consists of six rotating wafer buffer stations that can also be used as cooling stations. Carousel decouples rotational from vertical movement of the central handling robot, increasing throughput in comparison with standard cluster handlers. For a 20-sec, steady-state process, two modules achieve a throughput of up to 100 wafers/hour.