Paul J. Timans, Ph.D., the Director of Technology for the Thermal Products Group of Mattson Technology will present today in the South Hall TechXPOT at 1:00pm today.
The need for improved process control has stimulated many innovations in RTP equipment technology, especially in the area of temperature measurement and control. One critical requirement is for thermal uniformity across the wafer to ensure process uniformity and to minimize thermal stresses that could introduce defects. State-of-the-art RTP systems have been shown to demonstrate temperature control better than 2°C 3σ across process monitor wafers.
As device scaling continues to tighten process control requirements in advanced semiconductor manufacturing, a new challenge is emerging in the field of thermal processing. Pattern effects — arising from the effect of patterned thin film coatings on radiation heat transfer — can lead to process non-uniformity and defect generation. In essence, wafer temperature uniformity can be limited by the influence of device patterns on heat transfer. The pattern effect issue will become even more important as die sizes increase with innovations such as embedded DRAM and system-on-a-chip (SOC) technology. The advent of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates is also significant because these wafers inherently contain silicon-on-oxide structures that can have a major influence on thermal radiative properties and heat transfer.
Attend the NCCAVS Thin Films User Group’s Advanced Process and Integration in Semiconductor Technologies seminar today, July 14, 2011 to hear Dr. Paul J. Timans, Director of Technology for the Thermal Products Group of Mattson Technology, present on pattern effects in thermal processing and how our advanced RTP systems minimize these pattern effects. The event will be held at the SEMI TechXPOT in Moscone Center’s South Hall from 1:00pm– 3:00pm.