A practical design method for a rapid thermal processing system

In order to develop a method to design a high performance rapid thermal processing system, particularly for designing the details of its reflector geometry, a practical method is studied by linking quick experiments with calculations using a direct approach model using ray trace simulation (DARTS). The typical procedure is as follows: (i) The heating temperatures of silicon wafers under the newly designed reflectors are predicted by calculations using the DARTS model, when the reflectors are made of high-reflectivity and low-reflectivity materials. (ii) The silicon wafer temperature is experimentally measured under quickly fabricated reflectors made of low-reflectivity materials, such as mirror-polished stainless steel. (iii) The desirable design of the reflector made of high-reflectivity materials, such as electroplated gold, is determined based on the relationship obtained at step (i) between the silicon wafer temperatures of heating under the high- and low-reflectivity reflectors.