FLOWING GAS SEAL ENCLOSURE FOR PROCESSING WORKPIECE SURFACE WITH CONTROLLED GASENVIRONMENT AND INTENSE LASER IRRADIATION

摘要

Abstract of the DisclosureA controlled gas environment is provided against asurface area of a semiconductor wafer for performing processeson the area in the fabrication of integrated circuits thereon,including processes of deposition, impurity implantation,etching, ablation, and other radiation induced chemicalprocesses involving the gas atmosphere by maintaining acontinuous gas flow over the area and a portion of thesurrounding area of the wafer surface covered by an enclosurethat is suspended on the surface on a film of the flowing gas,the pressure, temperature and composition of the gasatmosphere against the surface area being controlled to meetthe requirements of each processing step and/or to carry awayparticles while the gas seal is maintained. In a particularembodiment, intense ultraviolet (UV) laser radiation isfocused by an optical system on a target on the semiconductorwafer surface through the suspended enclosure while the waferis held on a table that moves in the plane of the wafersurface in order to expose different selected areas of thesurface to the combined effects of the UV radiation and thegas atmosphere.