This application is a National Stage of International Application No. PCT/KR2010/005119, filed on Aug. 4, 2010, which claims priority to Korean Application No. 10-2009-0077425 filed Aug. 21, 2009. The content of the prior applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
The present invention relates to a heater block for a rapid thermal processing apparatus, and more particularly, to a heater block which includes heating lamps densely arranged in a tessellated arrangement.
A rapid thermal processing apparatus heats a substrate at a high rate using infrared light emitted from heating lamps for thermal processing. At this time, various attempts, for example, horizontal rotation of the substrate, have been made to achieve uniform heating of the substrate. However, problems caused by arrangement of heating lamps make it difficult to achieve uniform heating of the substrate, thereby causing a minute temperature gradient on the substrate. Such a temperature gradient provides an increasingly disadvantageous influence on reliability and yield of devices with increasing circuit integration.
However, the concentric arrangement of the heating lamps forms a void in the form of a straight line 21 and a concentric circle 22 as indicated by a dashed dot line, so that a substrate (not shown) is not uniformly heated due to generation of heat overlapping sections and voids between the heat overlapping sections even when the substrate is rotated, thereby causing a minute temperature gradient on the substrate.
As described above, the conventional concentric arrangement of the heating lamps inevitably incurs the temperature gradient on the substrate even in the case of horizontally rotating the substrate, and requires a complex structure for sector allocated temperature control, in which the heater block is divided into sectors such that power applied to the heating lamps is adjusted according to the sectors, in order to eliminate the temperature gradient on the substrate.
Therefore, the present invention is directed to providing a heater block for a rapid thermal processing apparatus, which includes heating lamps densely disposed in a new arrangement manner so as not to form a void between the heating lamps, instead of a conventional concentric arrangement, thereby preventing the occurrence of a temperature gradient caused by the arrangement of the heating lamps.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a heater block for a rapid thermal processing apparatus includes a plurality of heating lamps for rapidly heating a target in a rapid thermal process, wherein the plurality of heating lamps facing the target is densely arranged in a tessellated arrangement such that a void is not formed between side surfaces of the plural heating lamps facing each other.
Each of the heating lamps may have a straight rod shape on the side surfaces of the heating lamps facing each other.
Each of the heating lamps may be a T-shaped heating lamp which has a protrusion formed in an opposite direction with respect to the target.
The tessellated arrangement may be obtained by repeatedly arranging the plurality of heating lamps to cross each other at a right angle along orthogonal zigzag lines such that adjacent heating lamps are connected at each end thereof to one another. In some embodiments, the plurality of heating lamps may be arranged such that an end surface of a rear end of each of the heating lamps may adjoin a side surface of a leading end of the next heating lamp. In other embodiments, the plurality of heating lamps may be arranged such that a side surface of a rear end of each of the heating lamps may adjoin an end surface of a leading end of the next heating lamp.
According to embodiments of the invention, as compared with conventional heater blocks, the heating lamps are densely arranged to increase heat density per unit heat radiation area, thereby providing improved heat treatment efficiency with less energy while preventing the occurrence of a temperature gradient caused by a void between the heating lamps. In addition, uniform temperature control is enabled in the structure for sector allocated temperature control, even when the sectors to be independently controlled have increased areas as compared with a conventional heater block, thereby simplifying the configuration of a temperature control circuit.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following embodiments are given by way of illustration only and various modifications will be apparent to a person having ordinary knowledge in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, it should be understood that the following embodiments are not to be in any way construed as limiting the scope of the invention.
The term “tessellated arrangement” refers to the act of positioning planar figures close to each other so as not to overlap each other. According to this invention, since the heater block employs the heating lamps 20 having a straight rod shape in a bottom view, that is, when viewed from a substrate as a heating target, the term tessellated arrangement means that rectangular members are disposed on the lower surface of the heater block so as not to overlap each other without forming a void therebetween. Obviously, it is not necessary for the heating lamps to have a straight rod shape in the bottom view to provide such a tessellated arrangement. In this embodiment, the heating lamp has a straight rod shape for convenience of arrangement, and, in this structure, a T-shaped heating lamp as illustrated in
The heating lamp 20 has a rectangular shape with two ends S and F, as seen in a bottom view of the heating lamp. Herein, the tessellated arrangement refers to repeated arrangement of the heating lamps 20 to cross each other at a right angle along orthogonal zigzag lines 25 such that adjacent heating lamps are connected at each end thereof to one another, as shown in
a) shows one embodiment of the tessellated arrangement, in which an end surface of a rear end F of each of the heating lamps adjoins a side surface of a leading end S of the next heating lamp, with the heating lamps disposed along orthogonal zigzag lines 25.
When the rectangular heating lamps are disposed in the tessellated arrangement as shown in
As described above, according to the embodiment of the invention, the heater block includes the heating lamps 20 densely disposed thereon to have an increased thermal density per unit heat radiation area, thereby providing improved heat treatment efficiency while preventing the occurrence of a temperature gradient on the substrate 30, which could be caused by a void between the heating lamps. In addition, with the structure for sector-allocated temperature control, the heater block enables uniform temperature control even when the sectors to be independently controlled have increased areas, thereby simplifying a temperature control circuit.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2009-0077425 | Aug 2009 | KR | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/KR2010/005119 | 8/4/2010 | WO | 00 | 5/3/2012 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2011/021796 | 2/24/2011 | WO | A |
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