Heat treatment apparatus and heat treatment method for heating substrate by irradiating substrate with flashes of light

• US 9,025,943 B2
• Filed: 07/07/2011
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Kuroiwa, Toru
• Primary Examiner(s): PELHAM, JOSEPH MOORE
• Application Number:
  US13/177,705
• Publication Number:
  US 20120076477A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,398 Days
• US Class Current: 392/416
• CPC Class Codes: F27B 17/0025 Especially adapted for treating semiconductor wafers
• CPC Class Codes: F27B 5/18 Arrangement of controlling, monitoring, alarm or like devices
• CPC Class Codes: F27D 2019/0003 Monitoring the temperature or a characteristic of the charge and using it as a controlling value
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0007 of wafers or semiconductor substrates, e.g. using Rapid Thermal Processing
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/026 Control of working procedures of a pyrometer, other than calibration; Bandwidth calculation; Gain control
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67115 mainly by radiation
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67248 Temperature monitoring

Abstract

Radiant energy from a semiconductor wafer which is determined from the theoretical value of black body radiation and the actually measured result of an output from a photodiode are brought into correspondence with each other, and a table showing a correlation therebetween is acquired and stored on a magnetic disk. When a semiconductor wafer to be treated is irradiated with flashes of light from flash lamps, the photodiode receives radiant light emitted from the semiconductor wafer. A controller determines, from the output from the photodiode, the radiant energy emitted per unit time from the semiconductor wafer irradiated with flashes of light, based on the acquired table. The controller further determines the surface temperature of the semiconductor wafer from the determined radiant energy.

Claims

1. A method of heating a substrate by irradiating the substrate with flashes of light, comprising the steps of:

(a) acquiring a table showing a correlation between radiant energy per unit time from a substrate and an output from a photodiode receiving radiant light emitted from the substrate, said table showing a correlation between radiant energy per unit time from the substrate measured with a pyrometer and an output from said photodiode;

(b) irradiating the substrate with flashes of light from a flash lamp;

(c) determining, from the output from said photodiode, the radiant energy emitted per unit time from the substrate irradiated with flashes of light, based on said table; and

(d) determining the surface temperature of the substrate from the radiant energy per unit time from the substrate determined in said step (c).