SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REDUCING BEAM INSTABILITY IN LASER ANNEALING

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system and a method for reducing beam instability in laser annealing.SOLUTION: A method for reducing beam instability in laser annealing includes: directing a conditioned laser beam 34 so as to pass through an opening 54 in an aperture 50 using a beam-redirecting element; forming a line image on the surface of a semiconductor wafer 100 by imaging the aperture onto the surface of the semiconductor wafer, thereby locally heating the surface of the semiconductor wafer to form an annealing temperature distribution; detecting a thermal emission from the locally heated wafer surface of the semiconductor wafer; determining the annealing temperature distribution from the detected thermal emission; determining from the annealing temperature distribution a line-image intensity profile that includes a time-varying amount of slope; and adjusting the beam-redirecting element to redirect the conditioned laser beam to reduce or eliminate the time-varying amount of slope in the line-image intensity profile.