US Patent Issued to SCREEN Holdings on June 24 for "Light irradiation type heat treatment method and heat treatment apparatus" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 25 -- United States Patent no. 12,341,031, issued on June 24, was assigned to SCREEN Holdings Co. Ltd. (Kyoto, Japan).

"Light irradiation type heat treatment method and heat treatment apparatus" was invented by Akitsugu Ueda (Kyoto, Japan) and Kazuhiko Fuse (Kyoto, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A silicon semiconductor wafer is transported into a chamber, and preheating of the semiconductor wafer is started in a nitrogen atmosphere by irradiation with light from halogen lamps. When the temperature of the semiconductor wafer reaches a predetermined switching temperature in the course of the preheating, oxygen gas is supplied into the chamber to change the atmosphere...