Rapid Thermal Annealing

This article on rapid thermal annealing is for a forthcoming publication of the Encyclopedia of Materials Science and Technology. Procedures that entail the heating of semiconductor wafers and other materials to high temperatures for short periods of time are known collectively as rapid thermal processing. The specific term, rapid thermal annealing, for heat treatments usually without melting wafers, and the acronym, RTA, are applied to both the annealing equipment as well as the processing itself. The article describes various implementations of the technique for applications in silicon wafer processing. Topics include infrared spiking, lamp heating methods, furnace heating, wafer emissivity, temperature measurement, radiation pyrometers, thermocouples and physical sensors, and process control.