LSA101

The Veeco LSA101 is a laser spike annealing system used in semiconductor manufacturing. In 2021, Veeco shipped the first LSA101 from its facility in San Jose, California to a leading semiconductor manufacturer.^[1]

A laser spike annealing system generates a continuous or pulsed laser beam that is optically shaped and scanned across the wafer surface. The wafer is typically preheated to a moderate background temperature, and the laser spike raises the surface temperature momentarily to the desired activation level. The rapid heating and cooling rates (on the order of tens of microseconds) allow dopant activation while limiting diffusion of the implanted species.

The system includes a laser source, beam delivery optics, a scanning stage or galvanometer, and a temperature monitoring subsystem such as an infrared pyrometer. The process chamber is often purged with an inert gas to prevent oxidation during the high-temperature spike.

Downstream processes include contact formation, metallization, and subsequent dielectric layers. Upstream steps include gate stack formation, source/drain implantation, and spacer deposition.

Laser spike annealing can be applied to silicon, silicon-on-insulator (SOI), and compound semiconductor substrates. The system supports both blanket and patterned wafer processing.