Patent ID: 7145104

Claim:
A method of annealing a silicon wafer having an upper surface and process regions formed therein wherein the upper surface of the silicon wafer exhibits nonuniform reflectivities and the process regions, due to the nonuniform reflectivities of the upper surface, are prone to nonuniform heating upon direct exposure to annealing radiation, the method comprising the steps of: a. forming a silicon layer having a uniform reflectivity and absorbency of annealing radiation atop the upper surface of the silicon wafer and covering the process regions therein, thereby rendering the process regions invisible to annealing radiation incident the silicon layer; and b. irradiating the silicon layer with one or more pulses of annealing radiation, the annealing radiation having a wavelength that is absorbed by the silicon layer, wherein each of the one or more radiation pulses has sufficient energy to cause the silicon layer to raise the temperature of the upper surface of the silicon wafer to a uniform critical temperature by thermal diffusion to activate the process regions formed in the silicon wafer without thermally inducing wafer cracking.