What temperature is it?What temperature is it?

Wednesday, September 6, 2000

Kenneth Kreiger offers an answer to this question for semiconductor manufacturers that is more accurate than other methods currently used for rapid thermal processing systems. "We are accurate to within 2 degrees C," says the National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) researcher.

Traditional methods of measuring temperature in rapid thermal processing use a thermocouple and are accurate to within 6 degrees C. "We thought that if you didn't have the wire couple, it would help increase accuracy," says Kreiger. He uses thin-film thermocouples that link temperature measurement to the international temperature scale. The thin-film eliminates large junctions where pairs of thermocouple wires meet, avoiding the heat transfer that complicates measurements.

"The thin-film approach allows fabricators to make their processes tighter," says Bill Schuh, a mechanical engineer at Watlow, (Richmond, IL), the company which licenses the technology. "For users, it means better computer processing because we can fit more transistors on chips," says Schuh. For more information, call (815) 678-2211, e-mail Schuh at [email protected], visit the company's web site at http://www.watlow.com, or send faxes to (815) 678-3961.