Improvement in ultrathin rapid thermal oxide uniformity by the control of gas flow

Author

Hong, Chao-Chi ; Yen, Yuh-Ren ; Su, Jiann-Liang ; Hwu, Jenn-Gwo

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Nat. Taiwan Univ., Taipei, Taiwan

Volume

15

Issue

1

fYear

2002

fDate

2/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

102

Lastpage

107

Abstract

A methodology to improve the temperature uniformity for the wafer in a rapid thermal processing (RTP) system is presented. The work aims at the temperature compensation at the wafer surface by thermal convection. From simulation results of the flow field, it is seen that the cold gas, while flowing from the periphery of the wafer toward the wafer center, causes a lower pressure at and around the center. This lower pressure is due to the flow away of gas by buoyancy and it aggregates thermal nonuniformity. A technique is suggested that consists of suppressing the upward gas flow using a transparent quartz cap above the monitored wafer. Simulation and experimental results show that by implementing this technique, the temperature uniformity of the wafer is improved

Keywords

compensation; convection; process monitoring; rapid thermal processing; cold gas; flow field; gas flow control; monitored wafer; rapid thermal processing system; temperature compensation; thermal convection; thermal nonuniformity; transparent quartz cap; ultrathin rapid thermal oxide uniformity; upward gas flow; wafer center; wafer surface; Chaos; Control systems; Cooling; Fluid flow; Heat transfer; Heating; Monitoring; Rapid thermal processing; Temperature control; Thermal stresses;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Semiconductor Manufacturing, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0894-6507

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/66.983449

Filename

983449