A Dynamic Model of a High Temperature Arc Lamp

High temperature, high pressure arc lamps are used to thermally process semiconductor wafers. An accurate dynamic model that links radiation output to current input would facilitate the design of a power circuit that optimizes energy transfer to the arc. A finite volume arc model was derived using averaging of the energy balance equation over spatial domains. The space averaging approach accurately models the partial differential equation form of the energy balance equation, as tested with both steady state and transient arc currents, including high energy pulses with a current amplitude range from 400 A to 40 kA and a pulse width of a millisecond or less.