Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
The temperature induced at the surface of a silicon wafer is calculated for both circular and rectangular scanning beams, assuming both a thermally isolated and heat sunk back surface. In the former case, the problem is one of simple uniform heating with radiative cooling at slow scan speeds. A significant thermal gradient is produced across the wafer at high scan speeds. In the latter case, a one-dimensional analysis suffices except for beam diameters less than about twice the wafer thickness, when lateral heat diffusion effects are present.