ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,219,670, issued on Feb. 4, was assigned to SCREEN Holdings Co. Ltd. (Kyoto, Japan).
"Light-irradiation heat treatment apparatus" was invented by Makoto Abe (Kyoto, Japan), Hikaru Kawarazaki (Kyoto, Japan), Hideaki Tanimura (Kyoto, Japan) and Masashi Furukawa (Kyoto, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A semiconductor wafer held by a holding part in a chamber is irradiated and heated with halogen light emitted from a plurality of halogen lamps. A cylindrical louver and an annular light-shielding member, both made of opaque quartz, are provided between the halogen lamps and the semiconductor wafer. The outer diameter of the light-shielding...