On the fab floor, a soft bake that drifts even half a degree can throw off critical dimension control and leave scum after development. There’s no room for guesswork anymore. We built the photoresist drying infrared module to take that variability out of the equation, giving you repeatable thermal behavior when wafer-level uniformity and cleanroom discipline are the only acceptable standard.
What actually matters under the hood
We run short-wave infrared with halogen-free quartz emitters, dumping energy straight into the resist film. The payoff is wafer-level uniformity within ±0.1°C across the bake surface, and temperature setpoints that stay locked through the entire soft bake and hard bake window. The module sits in Class 1–100 cleanrooms without hiking particle counts, because the emitter layout and airflow path keep turbulence down and prevent particulate shedding. After 5,000+ hours, intensity drift stays under 5%, so the thermal budget on every lot stays consistent.
Why it holds up in lithography
On the litho line, the module cuts bake time while tightening CD distribution and knocking down defects from residual solvent. You end up with tighter process control, fewer rework lots, and a line-of-sight to spec that stays steady. Energy use drops because infrared heats the resist directly, not the chamber walls. Reliability is built around 24/7 operation, with predictable maintenance windows and none of the downtime that comes from thermal cycling instability.
What you need to plan for
The module drops into existing coat/bake tracks through standard mechanical and electrical interfaces, but the compact footprint means you need to think through airflow and exhaust routing up front. Commissioning is short—you’ll tune lamp power, dwell time, and the temperature feedback loop to match your resist stack. Once it’s dialed in, the process window tightens and the bake signature becomes something you can count on, lot after lot.