Furnace annealing is a process used in

semiconductor device fabrication Semiconductor device fabrication is the process used to manufacture semiconductor devices, typically integrated circuit (IC) chips such as modern computer processors, microcontrollers, and memory chips such as NAND flash and DRAM that are pres ...

which consist of heating multiple

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical conductivity value falling between that of a electrical conductor, conductor, such as copper, and an insulator (electricity), insulator, such as glas ...

wafers A wafer is a crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, light and dry biscuit, often used to decorate ice cream, and also used as a garnish on some sweet dishes. Wafers can also be made into cookies with cream flavoring sandwiched between them. They ...

in order to affect their electrical properties. Heat treatments are designed for different effects. Wafers can be heated in order to activate

dopant A dopant, also called a doping agent, is a trace of impurity element that is introduced into a chemical material to alter its original electrical or optical properties. The amount of dopant necessary to cause changes is typically very low. When ...

s, change film to film or film to wafer substrate interfaces, densify deposited films, change states of grown films, repair damage from implants, move dopants or drive dopants from one film into another or from a film into the wafer substrate. During ion implantation process, the crystal substrate is damaged due to bombardment with high energy ions. The damage caused can be repaired by subjecting the crystal to high temperature. This process is called annealing. Furnace anneals may be integrated into other furnace processing steps, such as oxidations, or may be processed on their own. Furnace anneals are performed by equipment especially built to heat

wafers. Furnaces are capable of processing many wafers at a time but each process can last between several hours and a day. Increasingly, furnace anneals are being supplanted by

Rapid Thermal Anneal Rapid thermal processing (RTP) is a semiconductor manufacturing process which heats silicon wafers to temperatures exceeding 1,000°C for not more than a few seconds. During cooling wafer temperatures must be brought down slowly to prevent dislocat ...

(RTA) or

Rapid Thermal Processing Rapid thermal processing (RTP) is a semiconductor manufacturing process which heats silicon wafers to temperatures exceeding 1,000°C for not more than a few seconds. During cooling wafer temperatures must be brought down slowly to prevent dislocat ...

(RTP). This is due to the relatively long thermal cycles of furnaces that causes the dopants that are being activated, especially boron, to diffuse farther than is intended. RTP or RTA fixes this by having thermal cycles for each wafer that is of the order of minutes rather than hours for furnace anneals.

Equipment

Consolidated Engineering Company
Annealing furnaces cover a broad range of Steel and Aluminum applications including tempering, normalizing, and aging, and similar automated loading, unloading and natural or forced cooling is possible with roller hearth, tip-up or batch arrangements.

annealing furnaces for semiconductor, solar, display and electronic applications
Tokyo Electron Limited
TELFORMULA and TELINDY PLUS

Annealing furnaces - for high or low carbon steel wire or strip, low carbon and alloy steel.

annealing furnaces for semiconductor applications including NVM, TFH, magnetic sensors & inductors. Semiconductor device fabrication {{electronics-stub