Rapid Thermal Annealing

Application ID: 504


In the semiconductor industry, rapid thermal annealing (RTA) is a semiconductor process step used for the activation of dopants and the interfacial reaction of metal contacts. In principle, the operation involves rapid heating of a wafer from ambient to approximately 1000–1500 K. As soon as the wafer reaches this temperature, it is held there for a few seconds and then finally quenched.

An indirect iR-lamp is used to heat the wafer. The temperature of the wafer is determined with an indirect sensor, based on the radiation emitted by the wafer.

In this example, the transient heat transfer and radiation of the lamp, wafer and sensor, is modeled by using the Heat Transfer with Surface-to-Surface Radiation interface. The results show the transient temperature distribution and the radiative fluxes. The response of the sensor is determined.

This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products: