Comprehensive RTP modeling and simulation including thermal stress analysis and feature size optical effects

A comprehensive simulation capability to describe RTP related issues has been developed. The simulator describes: 1) The radiative heat transfer in 3D with cylindric symmetry by combined zonal-Monte-Carlo method for arbitrary geometry and for various boundary conditions. The spectrum of tungsten-halogen lamp is modeled realistically and the software allows for analysis of multivariable independent lamp control; 2) Conductive heat transfer in the patterned wafer as a function of patterns (3D representation-crucial for stress analysis) and in the chamber walls (important for temperature uniformity from run to run); 3) 3D wafer warpage and thermal stress analysis of the wafer treated as a laminated plate; 4) Electromagnetic wave interaction with the object of a size comparable to the wave length of radiation for multi-layered nonplanar structures including steps and trenches; 5) Evaluation of emissivity of the wafer with deposited films for optical pyrometry. The software has been applied to various situations of which selected subsequent examples demonstrate its capability.<>