P7000 Wafer Alloy and Anneal System
Ohmic contact alloying for compound semiconductors
Metal ohmic alloying belongs to compound semiconductor manufacturing, and it’s usually run on a rapid thermal annealer built for other work. C&D designed the P7000 around it. Each wafer is heated on a hot plate at up to 500°C under a lowered lid, with a choice of process gases and pump-out. Three programmable pins raise and lower the wafer to control the temperature ramp, which also limits warping, and the wafer never touches the plate, so the backside stays clean. It’s built for 50mm to 200mm GaAs and InP wafers and handles high-temperature silicon processing as well.
SiSTEM is C&D’s distributor for the UK and Ireland. We specify and quote the system with you, and our after-sales team installs and supports it.
Throughput and uniformity
C&D’s figures put the P7000 at 19 wafers an hour in serial mode and 23 in parallel mode on one track, against about 10 for a typical rapid thermal annealer. The centre-to-edge surface temperature gradient is 3% in open air and 1.24% in a controlled ambient, and sheet resistance varies by 1.4% across the wafer after alloying.
Cooling and handling
An adjustable nitrogen flow cools each wafer for a set time before the arm moves it to the chill plate and on to the receive cassette. From process temperature to pick-up takes less than 60 seconds. Wafers can also be processed in open air for other applications.
System
- Alloy and chill plate modules with serial transport from a SEMI-standard H indexer
- Transfer arm placement within ±0.1mm over 300,000 wafers
- smartPro Windows interface, with dual-size bridging and barcode and recipe download
- SECS/GEM as an option; CE marked
The alloy module is also available on the P9000 and P8000 platforms.
