A FAST MONTE CARLO SCHEME FOR THERMAL RADIATION IN SEMICONDUCTOR PROCESSING APPLICATIONS

Thermal radiation is the most effective way for rapid thermal processing (RTP) and rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition (RTCVD) of wafers. It is well known in the semiconductor equipment design community that the Monte Carlo method for radiation is the only method that can accurately model radiative transport in RTP and RTCVD reactors. However, it has often been argued that it is expensive and difficult to use as a commercial design tool. In this article, a fast Monte Carlo scheme is presented. The basic algorithm is the classical surface-to-surface ray-tracing algorithm. In addition, a modified form of the binary spatial partitioning (BSP) algorithm is implemented to speed up ray tracing by at least a factor of 3. The results demonstrate a high level of accuracy with fairly low computational cost.

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