Patent ID: 8623750

Claim:
A method of heating a substrate including a high dielectric constant film formed on a silicon-germanium layer to promote the crystallization of said high dielectric constant film, said method comprising the steps of: (a) forming a first silicon-germanium layer on a substrate, said first silicon-germanium layer including a second silicon-germanium layer with a first germanium concentration and third silicon-germanium layers with a second germanium concentration higher than said first germanium concentration, said second silicon-germanium layer being sandwiched between said third silicon-germanium layers; (b) forming a film of silicon dioxide on said second silicon-germanium layer, and forming a high dielectric constant film on said film of silicon dioxide; (c) heating said substrate including said high dielectric constant film formed thereon at a predetermined preheating temperature; (d) irradiating said substrate with light to increase the temperature of a front surface of said substrate from said preheating temperature to a target temperature for a time period in the range of 3 milliseconds to 1 second; and (e) irradiating said substrate with light to maintain the temperature of the front surface of said substrate within a ±25° C. range around said target temperature for a time period in the range of 3 milliseconds to 1 second, said step (e) being performed after said step (d).