Out on the line, that 300 mm wafer can’t afford drift through soft bake and hard bake. A 2°C hotspot across the field will shift CD, leave scum behind, and turn a whole batch into scrap. You need temperature control that acts like a real process parameter, not a best guess.
What matters under the hood
We built the precision IR sensor for wafer work to hold ±0.1°C thermal uniformity across the bake surface. Setpoint repeatability stays within ±0.05°C run-to-run. It runs in cleanroom Class 1–100, with materials and finishes that don’t throw particles. Zero outgassing, zero shedding, and nothing contaminating the photoresist. It plays with halogen, quartz, and NIR sources, and the spectral response stays stable so absorption is consistent across the wafer. You get stable output past 5,000+ hours, with under 5% drift.
Why it holds up in litho
In lithography, the photoresist bake sets the thermal budget. With this sensor, you land on target in the first lot and stay there, lot after lot. Rework drops. CD control tightens, defects fall, and yield becomes predictable. Because the control band is tight, you don’t bake longer than needed, so energy use goes down. The platform supports 150 mm and 300 mm tools and drops into existing ovens and tracks, keeping the process window where it should be—in spec.
The practical details
Installation means a dedicated, shielded thermocouple run and a calibration offset mapped to your chamber geometry. Commissioning is short: tune emissivity and dwell time for your resist stack. The sensor is rated for 24/7 operation, but if ambient humidity climbs above 60% RH, you need active purge to keep the optics dry. Run a 24-hour qualification to lock the recipe, then put it to work.