Process for low temperature plasma deposition of an optical absorption layer and high speed optical annealing
First Claim
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1. A method of processing a workpiece, comprising:
- introducing an optical absorber material precursor gas into a chamber containing the workpiece;
generating an RF oscillating toroidal plasma current in a reentrant path that includes a process zone overlying said workpiece by applying RF source power, so as to deposit a layer of an optical absorber material on said workpiece;
exposing said workpiece to optical radiation that is at least partially absorbed in said optical absorber layer;
generating said optical radiation by focusing light from an array of lasers into a line beam on the top surface of said workpiece and scanning said line beam across said top surface in a direction transverse to said line beam;
wherein said line beam is transverse to a fast scan axis and wherein the step of focusing light from an array of lasers comprises;
collimating light along said fast axis in a set of cylindrical lenslets at the outputs of respective lasers of said array, andhomogenizing light intensity distribution of the light from said array of lasers along a slow axis transverse to said fast axis in a light pipe with multiple reflections along said slow axis and little or no reflections along said fast axis.
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Abstract
A method of processing a workpiece includes introducing an optical absorber material precursor gas into a chamber containing the workpiece, generating an RF oscillating toroidal plasma current in a reentrant path that includes a process zone overlying the workpiece by applying RF source power, so as to deposit a layer of an optical absorber material on the workpiece, and exposing the workpiece to optical radiation that is at least partially absorbed in the optical absorber layer.
559 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method of processing a workpiece, comprising:
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introducing an optical absorber material precursor gas into a chamber containing the workpiece; generating an RF oscillating toroidal plasma current in a reentrant path that includes a process zone overlying said workpiece by applying RF source power, so as to deposit a layer of an optical absorber material on said workpiece; exposing said workpiece to optical radiation that is at least partially absorbed in said optical absorber layer; generating said optical radiation by focusing light from an array of lasers into a line beam on the top surface of said workpiece and scanning said line beam across said top surface in a direction transverse to said line beam; wherein said line beam is transverse to a fast scan axis and wherein the step of focusing light from an array of lasers comprises; collimating light along said fast axis in a set of cylindrical lenslets at the outputs of respective lasers of said array, and homogenizing light intensity distribution of the light from said array of lasers along a slow axis transverse to said fast axis in a light pipe with multiple reflections along said slow axis and little or no reflections along said fast axis. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method of processing a workpiece, comprising:
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introducing an optical absorber material precursor gas into a chamber containing the workpiece; generating an RF oscillating toroidal plasma current in a reentrant path that includes a process zone overlying said workpiece by applying RF source power, so as to deposit a layer of an optical absorber material on said workpiece; exposing said workpiece to optical radiation that is at least partially absorbed in said optical absorber layer; wherein said optical absorber material comprises amorphous carbon and said precursor gas comprises a carbon-containing gas; including an absorption-enhancing species in the optical absorbing layer, said including comprising;
adding an optical absorption enhancing species precursor gas to the optical absorber material precursor gas during deposition of the optical absorber material;changing the proportion of the optical absorption-enhancing precursor gas in the chamber over time to vary the absorption characteristic over the depth of the optical absorber layer. - View Dependent Claims (16)
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17. A method of processing a workpiece, comprising:
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introducing an optical absorber material precursor gas into a chamber containing the workpiece; generating an RF oscillating toroidal plasma current in a reentrant path that includes a process zone overlying said workpiece by applying RF source power, so as to deposit a layer of an optical absorber material on said workpiece; exposing said workpiece to optical radiation that is at least partially absorbed in said optical absorber layer; wherein said optical absorber material comprises amorphous carbon and said precursor gas comprises a carbon-containing gas; including an absorption-enhancing species in the optical absorbing layer, said including comprising;
ion implanting the optical absorption-enhancing species into the optical absorption layer after the optical absorber layer has been deposited; andproviding an ion implantation depth profile that varies over depth so as to vary opacity of the optical absorber layer over depth.
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Specification