On the lithography floor, a soft bake that drifts even half a degree can throw off critical dimension bias and wipe out a whole lot. You need heat you can trust—set it and forget it, not cross your fingers.
What matters under the hood
We spec the R7s infrared heating bulbs for semiconductor thermal budgets. The short-wave output dumps energy straight into the photoresist, fast, with minimal substrate soak. The quartz envelope is chosen for high purity and low outgassing, so particle count stays flat in Class 1–100 cleanrooms. Across the bake surface, you get ±0.1°C uniformity, and repeatability holds lot after lot. The R7s base drops into standard fixtures, and the lamp is built for 24/7 fab life, holding stable output over 5,000+ hours.
Why this matters in practice
In photoresist processing, the bake step sets solvent removal, film stress, and CD control. The R7s nails temperature quickly, then holds without overshoot, so soft bake and hard bake profiles track the recipe exactly. The payoff? Fewer reworks, tighter CD distribution, and yield you can count on. Energy use falls because the emitters heat on demand with high electrical-to-radiant efficiency, and fewer lamp swaps mean less unplanned downtime.
The field notes you’ll appreciate
Installation is straightforward, but alignment is not optional. Distance and angle to the wafer plane have to match the process spec—otherwise you’ll lose uniformity. Expect a bit more inrush current at cold start; size the power supply and thermal controller for that transient.
Run in dry air or inert gas when you can; high humidity will push end-of-life earlier. And make sure the lamp matches your controller’s dimming and feedback method—closed-loop control is the way to go if you need sub-0.2°C stability.