Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to apparatus and methods for semiconductor processing, more particularly, to a thermal process chamber. The thermal process chamber includes a substrate support, a first plurality of heating elements disposed over or below the substrate support, and a spot heating module disposed over the substrate support. The spot heating module is utilized to provide local heating of cold regions on a substrate disposed on the substrate support during processing. Localized heating of the substrate improves temperature profile, which in turn improves deposition uniformity.

A method is disclosed for additive manufacturing a three-dimensional object layer-by-layer including depositing a layer of material on a bed surface or a previously deposited layer of the object to form the object layer-by-layer; providing energy to the material after each layer is deposited with the energy being provided by an energy source that forms an energized beam directed at the material; altering a property of a gas surrounding the material and through which the energized beam extends to alter a property of the object constructed from the material; melting the material with the energized beam to form a melted pool of liquefied material; and allowing the material to solidify to bond the material to a previous layer of material of the object.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a thermal process chamber that includes a substrate support, a first plurality of heating elements disposed over or below the substrate support, and a spot heating module disposed over the substrate support. The spot heating module is utilized to provide local heating of regions on a substrate disposed on the substrate support during processing. Localized heating of the substrate alters temperature profile. The shape of the beam spot produced by the spot heating module can be modified without making changes to the optics of the spot heating module.

A method for treating a raw-material powder includes forming a layer of the raw-material powder and removing oxide film formed on a surface of the raw-material powder from which the layer has been formed.

A laser processing system includes: a wavelength-variable laser device configured to output each of a laser beam at an absorption line as a wavelength at which light is absorbed by oxygen and a laser beam at a non-absorption line as a wavelength at which the amount of light absorption by oxygen is smaller than at the absorption line; an optical system configured to irradiate a workpiece with the laser beam; and a laser control unit configured to control the wavelength-variable laser device, set the wavelength of the laser beam output from the wavelength-variable laser device to be the non-absorption line when laser processing is performed on the surface of the workpiece in gas containing oxygen, and set the wavelength of the laser beam output from the wavelength-variable laser device to be the absorption line when ozone cleaning is performed on the surface of the workpiece in gas containing oxygen.

A method for cutting a workpiece includes cutting the workpiece along a predefined cutting contour to separate a workpiece part from a scrap part, and checking whether the workpiece part has been fully separated from the scrap part during the cutting. The workpiece is re-cut along an additional cutting contour laterally offset from the predefined cutting contour if it is found during the checking that the workpiece part has not been fully separated from the scrap part. The disclosure also relates to an associated machine for cutting a workpiece.

A method of laser cutting with improved efficiency for reflective and transparent materials is described. The method improves the absorption of the laser beam in the material being cut. Laser cutting is typically performed with a flow of a high pressure gas, termed assist gas, directed at the cutting point. Per this invention, a gaseous additive is added into the flow of the assist gas. The additive decomposes or reacts when it comes into contact with the hot laser-irradiated surface of the material and leaves a residue of elemental carbon (such as soot) on the surface. The residue of elemental carbon has excellent beam absorption characteristics and serves to efficiently transfer the energy from the laser beam to the material, thus enabling higher cutting speeds and greater maximum material thicknesses for the same laser optical power.

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to apparatus and methods for semiconductor processing, more particularly, to a thermal process chamber. The thermal process chamber includes a substrate support, a first plurality of heating elements disposed over or below the substrate support, and a spot heating module disposed over the substrate support. The spot heating module is utilized to provide local heating of cold regions on a substrate disposed on the substrate support during processing. Localized heating of the substrate improves temperature profile, which in turn improves deposition uniformity.

A method of forming an optical device comprises applying a laser beam to a target area of the surface so as to selectively heat material of the surface thereby to provide transfer of material due to a surface tension gradient, wherein the surface is such that, when liquid, parts of the surface at higher temperatures have a higher surface tension than adjacent parts of the surface at lower temperatures.

Provided is a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device. The method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a target etching layer on a substrate, patterning the target etching layer to form a pattern layer including a pattern portion having a first height and a first width and a recess portion having a second width, providing a first gas and a second gas on the pattern layer, and performing a reaction process including reacting the first and second gases with a surface of the pattern portion by irradiating a laser beam on the pattern layer. The performing the reaction process includes removing a portion of sidewalls of the pattern portion so that the pattern portion has a third width that is smaller than the first width.