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 dislocations and wafer breakage due to thermal shock. Such rapid heating rates are often attained by high intensity lamps or lasers. These processes are used for a wide variety of applications in
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...
manufacturing including
dopant activation
Dopant activation is the process of obtaining the desired electronic contribution from impurity species in a semiconductor host. The term is often restricted to the application of thermal energy following the ion implantation of dopants. In the mo ...
,
thermal oxidation
In microfabrication, thermal oxidation is a way to produce a thin layer of oxide (usually silicon dioxide) on the surface of a wafer. The technique forces an oxidizing agent to diffuse into the wafer at high temperature and react with it. The ra ...
, metal reflow and chemical vapor deposition.
Temperature control
One of the key challenges in rapid thermal processing is accurate measurement and control of the wafer temperature. Monitoring the ambient with a thermocouple has only recently become feasible, in that the high temperature ramp rates prevent the wafer from coming to
thermal equilibrium
Two physical systems are in thermal equilibrium if there is no net flow of thermal energy between them when they are connected by a path permeable to heat. Thermal equilibrium obeys the zeroth law of thermodynamics. A system is said to be in t ...
with the process chamber. One temperature control strategy involves ''in situ''
pyrometry
A pyrometer, or radiation thermometer, is a type of remote sensing thermometer used to measure the temperature of distant objects. Various forms of pyrometers have historically existed. In the modern usage, it is a device that from a distance de ...
to effect real time control. Used for melting iron for welding purposes.
Rapid thermal anneal
Rapid thermal anneal (RTA) in rapid thermal processing is a process used in
semiconductor device fabrication
Semiconductor device fabrication is the process used to manufacture semiconductor devices, typically integrated circuits (ICs) such as microprocessors, microcontrollers, and memories (such as Random-access memory, RAM and flash memory). It is a ...
which involves heating a single
wafer at a time in order to affect its electrical properties. Unique 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 small amount of a substance added to a material to alter its physical properties, such as electrical or optics, optical properties. The amount of dopant is typically very low compared to the material b ...
s, change film-to-film or film-to-wafer substrate interfaces, densify deposited films, change states of grown films, repair damage from
ion implantation
Ion implantation is a low-temperature process by which ions of one element are accelerated into a solid target, thereby changing the target's physical, chemical, or electrical properties. Ion implantation is used in semiconductor device fabrica ...
, move dopants or drive dopants from one film into another or from a film into the wafer substrate.
Rapid thermal anneals are performed by equipment that heats a single wafer at a time using either lamp based heating, a hot chuck, or a hot plate that a wafer is brought near. Unlike
furnace anneals they are of short duration, processing each wafer in several minutes.
To achieve short annealing times and quick throughput, sacrifices are made in temperature and process uniformity, temperature measurement and control, and wafer stress.
RTP-like processing has found applications in another rapidly growing field: solar cell fabrication. RTP-like processing, in which the semiconductor sample is heated by absorbing optical radiation, has come to be used for many solar cell fabrication steps, including phosphorus diffusion for N/P junction formation and impurity gettering, hydrogen diffusion for impurity and defect passivation, and formation of screen-printed contacts using Ag-ink for the front and Al-ink for back contacts, respectively.
See also
*
Tamman and Hüttig temperature
References
{{Reflist
External links
IEEE RTP Conference Proceedings Different Heating Systems with Microwaves/Plasma
Semiconductor device fabrication