Rapid Thermal Processing

Rapid Thermal Processing [RTP] is an advanced wafer processing technology used to expose wafers to heat over a short period of time. The term RTP applies to equipment that processes wafers at high throughput due to the ability to ramp temperature up and down in a matter of seconds. This process is typically single wafer process.

The benefits of producing wafers using rapid thermal annealing include:  the removal of defects introduced by ion implantation; the activation of species with little movement of the dopants (impurities that have been added to semiconductors); increasing the density of deposited film; the changing of film-to-film or film-to-water substrate interfaces; changing the states of grown films, and moving the dopants from one film to another, or into the wafer substrate.

Because wafers are exposed to heat over such a short period of time, the thermal budget is relatively small. This allows for the use of elevated temperatures further down the device manufacturing process in order to achieve optimal device properties. The optimal annealing time is a delicate trade off in temperature and process uniformity, as well as throughput.

Applications

• Spike Anneal
• Soak Anneal/Conventional Implant Anneal
• Silicide Anneal/Contact Anneal
• Low Temperature Anneal
• High-K Dielectrics Anneal
• High Temperature Anneal
• BPSG Anneal