Rapid thermal anneal (RTA) is a process used in semiconductor device fabrication which consist of heating a single wafer at a time in order to affect its electrical properties. Unique heat treatments are designed for different effects. Wafers can be heated in order to activate dopants, change film to film or film to wafer substrate interfaces, densify deposited films, change states of grown films, repair damage from ion implantation, move dopants or drive dopants from one film into another or from a film into the wafer substrate.
Rapid thermal anneals are performed by equipment that heats a single wafer at a time using either lamp based heating, a hot chuck, or a hot plate that a wafer is brought near. Unlike furnace anneals they are short in duration, processing each wafer in several minutes.
Rapid thermal anneal is a subset of processes called Rapid Thermal Process (RTP).
Equipment