Out on the fab floor, you learn to treat temperature drift in photoresist processing like an old enemy. A soft bake at 90°C with ±3°C across the wafer? That kind of spread shifts critical dimension bias and leaves edge beads that will come back to haunt you later as rework. So we built a custom industrial infrared fab system to take that uncertainty off the table—delivering repeatable heat right where the process needs it, without moving air and without adding particles.
What matters, technically
We run short-wave infrared emitters with fast, direct-to-wafer response, so we can ramp quickly and hold steady with real control. Thermal uniformity across the chuck stays within ±0.1°C, and temperature repeatability from batch to batch is better than ±0.5°C.
The module is cleanroom-compatible down to Class 1–100, thanks to a sealed thermal design and low-outgassing materials. Particle generation stays at zero during the bake. Integrated metrology feeds a closed-loop controller that keeps the setpoint, even when line voltage shifts and ambient conditions swing around.
The payoff is a thermal budget you can count on—consistent soft bake and hard bake profiles, day after day.
Why it works where it matters
Lithography and resist curing live and die on thermal stability. This system locks down the bake step, so line-width control tightens up and edge bead removal behaves predictably. You cut scrap, you cut rework, and you stop chasing excursions that eat into yield.
Energy use drops, too, because the emitters heat the target—not the whole bay. Uptime holds steady with a design that runs 24/7, and the emitter package is modular enough that you can swap it out in minutes.
Here are the things to get right
The module can integrate into new tracks or existing ones, but plan the footprint and interfaces early. Commissioning is quick if you come in ready to align recipe temperatures, sensor offsets, and conveyor speed.
The emitters are high-intensity, so thermal isolation of adjacent stations is mandatory. And if you want the protection logic to stay quiet, cleanroom power conditioning is a must—transients will trip it otherwise.
Set it up properly and the line runs without unplanned interruptions. And your process windows open up.