Near infrared (NIR) wafer dryer

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 02:47:37 +0800

On the lithography floor, the line keeps moving whether your bake profile is dialed in or not. Soft bake drift shows up as CD scatter. Hard bake non-uniformity shreds pattern integrity, and the wafer ends up paying for every degree the thermal control misses. What we built, and why it matters We put the NIR wafer dryer around near-infrared radiant heating, tuned to dump energy straight into the photoresist and substrate. The payoff is wafer-level uniformity held within ±0.1°C, with repeatable temperature profiles across soft bake and hard bake. It runs in Class 1–100 cleanrooms without hiking particle counts, and there are zero particle emissions right at the heating point. Reliability is baked in for 24/7 operation, with zero unplanned downtime across multiple production shifts. In a high-volume fab, thermal stability is process stability. You get tighter CD control, fewer rework lots, and bake performance that behaves itself lot after lot. The NIR dryer cuts thermal budget waste, shortens cycle time, and keeps the line from getting tripped up by temperature excursions. Whether you’re running packaging lines or pushing advanced nodes, that shows up as higher yield and steady equipment utilization. Here is the thing with NIR: it needs line-of-sight to the wafer and a clean, reflective thermal path. Shadowing from chucks or fixtures can create localized cold spots. So you plan integration around substrate geometry, emissivity, and tool interfaces. Once the alignment is right, you get repeatable bakes, minimal maintenance, and predictable energy draw.

(NIR) on Maximum Warmth Infrared Heaters

Near infrared (NIR) wafer dryer