Furnace temperature control

12/01/1996

Furnace temperature control

The INTEMPsS intelligent temperature controller is designed for use on vertical and horizontal diffusion/LPCVD furnaces, providing enhanced temperature stability and recovery features in the control of diffusion/LPCVD heating elements. It provides good temperature uniformity across the flat zone and fast temperature recovery times, which can reduce processing time and increase wafer throughput; it is compatible with the 7355X and 7353H DDC horizontal furnace systems. The controller includes hardware-based overtemperature circuitry with setpoint and actual temperature display capability, and it also has the ability to sense an open thermocouple and switch to an adjacent one for protection of the wafer load during a process cycle. INTEMPsS implements advanced rule-based control algorithms supporting fast recovery times, tight flat zone control, and enhanced zone-to-zone control during a ramp. Bruce Technologies International Inc., North Billerica, MA; ph 508/670-5501, fax 508/663-8286.