Microscale heat transfer phenomena in multilayer thin film processing with a radiant heat source

During thermal processing of multilayer thin film structures (e.g. silicon oxide film- silicon film - silicon oxide film - silicon substrate) with a radiant heat source, the layer thicknesses are on the same order of magnitude as the wavelengths of the incident radiation (0.1 to 12 μm). This paper presents a technique that couples these radiation microscale heat transfer effects with the conductive heat transfer in the film structure. A parametric study was conducted to observe the effects of varying the thickness of the different layers on the maximum temperature attained during processing. Results indicated that the variation of the thickness of either silicon oxide layer causes significant fluctuations on the reflectivity and the temperature of the film. Increasing the thickness of the thin silicon layer results in a nearly linear increase in temperature. Layer thickness ranges where small variations in thickness may result in large changes in reflectivity were identified