US 12,148,615 B2
Method and apparatus for laser annealing
Paul Van Der Wilt, Goettingen (DE)
Assigned to Coherent LaserSystems GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen (DE)
Filed by Coherent LaserSystems GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen (DE)
Filed on Apr. 15, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/722,014.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/185,273, filed on May 6, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/251,174, filed on Oct. 1, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0359197 A1, Nov. 10, 2022
Int. Cl. C30B 13/30 (2006.01); B23K 26/06 (2014.01); B23K 26/0622 (2014.01); B23K 26/53 (2014.01); G02B 27/09 (2006.01); H01L 21/02 (2006.01); B23K 103/00 (2006.01)
CPC H01L 21/02678 (2013.01) [B23K 26/0608 (2013.01); B23K 26/0622 (2015.10); B23K 26/53 (2015.10); G02B 27/0955 (2013.01); H01L 21/02686 (2013.01); H01L 21/02691 (2013.01); B23K 2103/56 (2018.08)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for annealing a layer on a substrate, comprising the steps of:
providing a plurality of pulsed laser beams, the laser beams divided into a first set of laser beams having a first set of laser pulses and a second set of laser beams having a second set of laser pulses;
forming the laser beams into a line beam, the line beam having a long dimension and an orthogonal short dimension, the line beam having a uniform intensity distribution along the long dimension, each location along the long dimension of the line beam illuminated by every one of the laser beams;
illuminating the layer with the line beam, the second set of laser beams incident on the layer from a smaller range of angles than all of the laser beams combined; and
synchronizing pulses in the laser beams such that the first set of laser pulses are incident on the layer before the second set of laser pulses, the pulses in the first set of laser beams melting material in the layer illuminated by the line beam and the pulses in the second set of laser beams incident on the layer before the melted material solidifies.