Apparatuses and methods for resistively heating a thermal processing system
US7176417B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 15, 2001 |
| Grant date | Feb 13, 2007 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 30, 2023 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01L21/67103
- WIPO fieldSemiconductors
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A resistive heater having a doped ceramic heating element embedded either partially or completely within a matrix of undoped ceramic material. The ceramic may be silicon carbide, and the dopant may be nitrogen. Many of the advantages of the present heater stern from the fact that the materials used for the heating elements and the matrix material surrounding those elements have substantially the same coefficient of thermal expansion. In one embodiment, the heater is a monolithic plate that is compact, strong, robust, and low in thermal mass, allowing it to respond quickly to power input variations. The resistive heater may be used in many of the reactors and processing chambers used to fabricate integrated circuits, such as those that deposit epitaxial films, and carry out rapid thermal processing.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.