Patent ID: 7667162

Claim:
A method of heating a semiconductor substrate in a thermal processing tool having a radiant heat source and a temperature sensor arranged to measure the temperature of the substrate, the method comprising: placing the substrate on a rotating substrate support in the thermal processing tool; heating the substrate with the radiant heat source while rotating the substrate on the substrate support; taking a plurality of temperature readings from the temperature sensor, the temperature sensor having a known radial position about the center of the substrate; monitoring rotation of the substrate support by generating an angular signal at least once per full rotation of the substrate support; establishing an angular position for each temperature reading of the plurality of temperature readings by interpolation using the an angular signal and a time signal; and identifying one or more temperature readings of the plurality of temperature readings from the temperature sensor to be filtered out and removed from calculations used to control the radiant heat source based on the angular and radial positions of the readings.