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Product Briefing Outline: Advanced Energy Industries has introduced a new product family of its Sekidenko optical fiber thermometers (OFTs) and emissometers. The new OR4000 product family provides non-contact temperature measurement for RTP, HDP-CVD, MO-CVD, UV cure and a variety of other semiconductor processes. The systems use a small, modular platform that has improved optical signal gathering, background subtraction techniques, and enhanced electronics resolution to provide a wider range of measurements and lower temperature capabilities, according to the company.

Problem: During wafer fabrication, generating accurate, multi-point temperature measurements of a device is critical to the process. For example, the wafer emissivity during an MOCVD process will vary significantly as different materials are deposited. Without correcting for emissivity, temperature errors can easily exceed 40°C, but with the use of real-time emissivity correction, the error can be reduced to < 1.0°C, AE claims for the new OFT's.

Solution: Unlike thermocouple systems that require contact for measurement or measure a surface close to the wafer, AE's OFTs measure direct wafer temperature in situ—without contacting the wafer. Each OFT system consists of a precision controller, a sophisticated sensor, and optical fiber cables. The use of a fiber optic cable allows for remote positioning of the controller away from RF and other sources of EMI. Each sensor is custom-designed to meet both the functional and mechanical requirements of the unique application. The sensor detects emitted near-infrared (NIR) light—without removing or contacting the wafer. A fiber optic cable transmits the NIR light from the sensor to the controller, where signal processing converts the light collected to a temperature reading.

Applications: AE's OFTs are ideally suited for your most tightly controlled temperature and emissivity-dependent applications, such as laser annealing, RTP, MOCVD, HDP-CVD, PECVD, PVD, metal etch, and other applications where uniform substrate temperatures enable critical process results.

Platform: The OR4000T provides multi-channel capability and supports read rates up to 2 KHz for the most demanding semiconductor applications.  The OR4000E delivers high-speed performance along with real-time emissivity compensation.  For processes that typically use thermocouple-based temperature measurement, the OR400T model provides a cost-effective, non-contact solution for semiconductor manufacturing.

Availability: July 2006 onwards.