Systems and methods for reducing pulsed laser beam profile non-uniformities for laser annealing
Granted: September 22, 2016
Application Number:
20160276184
Systems and methods for reducing pulsed laser beam profile non-uniformities for laser annealing are disclosed. The methods include directing an initial pulsed laser beam along an optical axis, and imparting to each light pulse a time-varying angular deflection relative to the optical axis. This forms a new laser beam wherein each light pulse is smeared out over an amount of spatial deflection ? sufficient to reduce the micro-scale intensity variations in the laser beam. The new laser…
SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES FOR FORMING THREE-DIMENSIONAL INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
Granted: August 18, 2016
Application Number:
20160240440
Provided are systems and processes for forming a three-dimensional circuit on a substrate. A radiation source produces a beam that is directed at a substrate having an isolating layer interposed between circuit layers. The circuit layers communicate with each other via a seed region exhibiting a crystalline surface. At least one circuit layer has an initial microstructure that exhibits electronic properties unsuitable for forming circuit features therein. After being controllably heat…
Laser annealing systems and methods with ultra-short dwell times
Granted: August 18, 2016
Application Number:
20160240407
Laser annealing systems and methods for annealing a semiconductor wafer with ultra-short dwell times are disclosed. The laser annealing systems can include one or two laser beams that at least partially overlap. One of the laser beams is a pre-heat laser beam and the other laser beam is the annealing laser beam. The annealing laser beam scans sufficiently fast so that the dwell time is in the range from about 1 ?s to about 100 ?s. These ultra-short dwell times are useful for annealing…
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING DEVICE QUALITY GALLIUM NITRIDE LAYERS ON SILICON SUBSTRATES
Granted: July 14, 2016
Application Number:
20160203972
Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is used for heteroepitaxial film growth at reaction temperatures ranging from 80-400° C. The substrate and film materials are preferably selected to take advantage of Domain Matched Epitaxy (DME). A laser annealing system is used to thermally anneal deposition layers after deposition by ALD. In preferred embodiments a silicon substrate is overlaid with an AIN nucleation layer and laser annealed. Thereafter a GaN device layers is applied over the AIN layer…
Laser annealing systems and methods with ultra-short dwell times
Granted: June 23, 2016
Application Number:
20160181120
Laser annealing systems and methods with ultra-short dwell times are disclosed. The method includes locally pre-heating the wafer with a pre-heat line image and then rapidly scanning an annealing image relative to the pre-heat line image to define a scanning overlap region that has a dwell time is in the range from 10 ns to 500 ns. These ultra-short dwell times are useful for performing surface or subsurface melt annealing of product wafers because they prevent the device structures from…
FORMATION OF HETEROEPITAXIAL LAYERS WITH RAPID THERMAL PROCESSING TO REMOVE LATTICE DISLOCATIONS
Granted: June 2, 2016
Application Number:
20160155629
Method and devices are disclosed for device manufacture of gallium nitride devices by growing a gallium nitride layer on a silicon substrate using Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) followed by rapid thermal annealing. Gallium nitride is grown directly on silicon or on a barrier layer of aluminum nitride grown on the silicon substrate. One or both layers are thermally processed by rapid thermal annealing. Preferably the ALD process use a reaction temperature below 550° C. and preferable…
High-efficiency line-forming optical systems and methods for defect annealing and dopant activation
Granted: May 26, 2016
Application Number:
20160148810
High-efficiency line-forming optical systems and methods for defect annealing and dopant activation are disclosed. The system includes a CO2-based line-forming system configured to form at a wafer surface a first line image having between 2000 W and 3000 W of optical power. The line image is scanned over the wafer surface to locally raise the temperature up to a defect anneal temperature. The system can include a visible-wavelength diode-based line-forming system that forms a second line…
Atomic Layer Deposition Head
Granted: April 28, 2016
Application Number:
20160115596
An ALD coating method to provide a coating surface on a substrate is provided. The ALD coating method comprises: providing a deposition heading including a unit cell having a first precursor nozzle assembly and a second precursor nozzle assembly; emitting a first precursor from the first precursor nozzle assembly into chamber under atmospheric conditions in a direction substantially normal to the coating surface; emitting a second precursor from the first precursor nozzle assembly into…
Laser annealing systems and methods with ultra-short dwell times
Granted: March 24, 2016
Application Number:
20160086832
Laser annealing systems and methods for annealing a semiconductor wafer with ultra-short dwell times are disclosed. The laser annealing systems can include one or two laser beams that at least partially overlap. One of the laser beams is a pre-heat laser beam and the other laser beam is the annealing laser beam. The annealing laser beam scans sufficiently fast so that the dwell time is in the range from about 1 ?s to about 100 ?s. These ultra-short dwell times are useful for annealing…
Radical-enhanced atomic layer deposition using CF4 to enhance oxygen radical generation
Granted: March 3, 2016
Application Number:
20160064208
A method of performing a radical-enhanced atomic-layer deposition process on a surface of a substrate that resides within an interior of a reactor chamber is disclosed. The method includes forming plasma from a gas mixture consisting of CF4 and O2, wherein the CF4 is present in a concentration in the range from 0.1 vol % to 10 vol %. The plasma formed from the gas mixture generates oxygen radicals O* faster than if there were no CF4 present in the gas mixture. The method also includes…
High-efficiency line-forming optical systems and methods
Granted: February 4, 2016
Application Number:
20160033773
A line-forming optical system and method are disclosed that form a line image with high-efficiency. A method includes forming a laser beam having a first intensity profile with a Gaussian distribution in at least a first direction and passing at least 50% of the laser beam in the first direction to form a first transmitted light. The method also includes: focusing the first transmitted light at an intermediate image plane to define a second intensity profile having a central peak and…
Systems and methods for reducing beam instability in laser annealing
Granted: December 24, 2015
Application Number:
20150371911
Systems and methods for reducing beam instability in laser annealing are disclosed. The method includes: directing a conditioned laser beam through an opening in an aperture using a beam-redirecting element; forming a line image on the surface of the semiconductor wafer by imaging the aperture onto the surface, thereby locally heating the surface to form an annealing temperature distribution; detecting a thermal emission from the locally heated wafer surface; determining the annealing…
Wynne-Dyson projection lens with reduced susceptibility to UV damage
Granted: November 19, 2015
Application Number:
20150331326
A Wynne-Dyson projection lens for use in an ultraviolet optical lithography system is disclosed, wherein the projection lens is configured to have reduced susceptibility to damage from ultraviolet radiation. The projection lens utilizes lens elements that are made of optical glasses that are resistant to damage from ultraviolet radiation, but that also provide sufficient degrees of freedom to correct aberrations. The glass types used for the lens elements are selected from the group of…
Oxygen radical enhanced atomic-layer deposition using ozone plasma
Granted: October 1, 2015
Application Number:
20150279665
A method of performing an oxygen radical enhanced atomic-layer deposition process on a surface of a substrate that resides within an interior of a reactor chamber is disclosed. The method includes forming an ozone plasma to generate oxygen radicals O*. The method also includes feeding the oxygen radicals and a precursor gas sequentially into the interior of the reactor chamber to form an oxide film on the substrate surface. A system for performing the oxygen radical enhanced atomic-layer…
Epitaxial growth of compound semiconductors using lattice-tuned domain-matching epitaxy
Granted: April 2, 2015
Application Number:
20150090180
A method of epitaxially growing a final film using a crystalline substrate wherein the final film cannot be grown directly on the substrate surface is disclosed. The method includes forming a transition layer on the upper surface of the substrate. The transition layer has a lattice spacing that varies between its lower and upper surfaces. The lattice spacing at the lower surface matches the lattice spacing of the substrate to within a first lattice mismatch of 7%. The lattice spacing at…
Wynne-Dyson optical system with variable magnification
Granted: February 26, 2015
Application Number:
20150055228
A 1× Wynne-Dyson optical system for microlithography having a variable magnification is disclosed. The 1× Wynne-Dyson optical system has first and second prisms, and a positive lens group that includes a split lens having first and second split lens elements that reside adjacent the first and second prisms, respectively. The first and second split lens elements are axially movable to change the magnification by up to about 500 parts per million. An adjustable positive lens group for a…
Methods of laser processing photoresist in a gaseous environment
Granted: February 12, 2015
Application Number:
20150041431
Methods of laser processing photoresist in a gaseous environment to improve at least one of etch resistance and line-edge roughness are disclosed. The methods include sequentially introducing first and second molecular gases to the photoresist surface and performing respective first and second laser scanning of the surface for each molecular gas. The first molecular gas can be trimethyl aluminum, titanium tetrachloride or diethyl zinc, and the second molecular gas comprises water vapor.…
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MEASURING HIGH-INTENSITY LIGHT BEAMS
Granted: January 29, 2015
Application Number:
20150029497
Systems and methods for measuring an intensity characteristic of a light beam are disclosed. The methods include directing the light beam into a prism assembly that includes a thin prism sandwiched by two transparent plates, and reflecting a portion of the light beam by total-internal-reflection surface to an integrating sphere while transmitting the remaining portion of the light beam through the two transparent plates to a beam dump. The method also includes detecting light captured by…
Systems and methods for material processing using light-emitting diodes
Granted: August 28, 2014
Application Number:
20140238958
Systems and methods for processing a material layer supported by a substrate using a light-source assembly that includes LED light sources each formed from an array of LEDs. The material layer is capable of undergoing a photo-process having a temperature-dependent reaction rate. Some of the LEDs emit light of a first wavelength that initiate the photo-process while some of the LEDs emit light of a second wavelength that heats the substrate. The heat from the substrate then heats the…
Apparatus and methods for improving the intensity profile of a beam image used to process a substrate
Granted: August 14, 2014
Application Number:
20140227890
Methods and apparatuses are provided for improving the intensity profile of a beam image used to process a semiconductor substrate. At least one photonic beam may be generated and manipulated to form an image having an intensity profile with an extended uniform region useful for thermally processing the surface of the substrate. The image may be scanned across the surface to heat at least a portion of the substrate surface to achieve a desired temperature within a predetermined dwell…
