Pre-heat processes for millisecond anneal system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10262873-B2
Application number	US-201715417470-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 27, 2017
Priority date	Feb 1, 2016
Publication date	Apr 16, 2019
Grant date	Apr 16, 2019

Abstract

Preheat processes for a millisecond anneal system are provided. In one example implementation, a heat treatment process can include receiving a substrate on a wafer support in a processing chamber of a millisecond anneal system; heating the substrate to an intermediate temperature; and heating the substrate using a millisecond heating flash. Prior to heating the substrate to the intermediate temperature, the process can include heating the substrate to a pre-bake temperature for a soak period.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A heat treatment process for a millisecond anneal system, the process comprising:
receiving a substrate on a wafer support in a processing chamber of a millisecond anneal system;
heating the substrate to an intermediate temperature; and
after heating the substrate to the intermediate temperature, then heating the substrate using a heating flash to a temperature that is greater than the intermediate temperature;
wherein prior to heating the substrate to the intermediate temperature, the process comprises heating the substrate to a pre-bake temperature for a soak period;
wherein heating the substrate to the intermediate temperature is implemented by ramping a temperature of the substrate from the pre-bake temperature to the intermediate temperature during a ramp phase.

2. The heat treatment process of claim 1 , wherein the pre-bake temperature is selected to reduce a reaction rate for oxidation associated with the substrate.

3. The heat treatment process of claim 1 , wherein the pre-bake temperature is selected to prevent inter-layer growth associated with the substrate.

4. The heat treatment process of claim 1 , wherein the pre-bake temperature is in the range of about 200° C. to about 500° C.

5. The heat treatment process of claim 1 , wherein the soak period is between about 0.5 seconds and about 10 minutes.

6. The heat treatment process of claim 1 , wherein the soak period is less than about 100 seconds.

7. The heat treatment process of claim 1 , wherein the soak period is less than about 30 seconds.

8. The heat treatment process of claim 1 , wherein the process comprises admitting an ambient gas into the processing chamber.

9. The heat treatment process of claim 8 , wherein the ambient gas comprises nitrogen, argon, or helium.

10. The heat treatment process of claim 8 , wherein the ambient gas is at atmospheric pressure.

11. The heat treatment process of claim 8 , wherein the ambient gas is at a pressure below about 1 Torr.

12. The heat treatment process of claim 8 , wherein the ambient gas comprises one or more of hydrogen, deuterium, ammonia, or hydrazine species.

13. The heat treatment process of claim 1 , wherein the process comprises inducing a plasma to create chemically reducing species.

14. The heat treatment process of claim 1 , wherein the process comprises creating species using UV light.

Assignees

• Mattson Tech Inc

Inventors

• Timans Paul

Classifications

• H10P72/0602

  Temperature monitoring · CPC title

• H10P72/0462

  characterised by the construction of the processing chambers, e.g. modular processing chambers · CPC title

• H10P72/0436

  mainly by radiation · CPC title

• H10P95/90 Primary

  Thermal treatments, e.g. annealing or sintering · CPC title

• H01L21/67115

  Electricity · mapped topic