Modified Enthalpy Method Applied to Laser Annealing of Semi Conductor Films

The rapid melting of silicon film due to the absorption of a CW laser beam radiation is studied. The silicon film melting and recrystallization is mainly controlled by the temperature distribution in the semiconductor. The enthalpy technique for the solution of phase change problems is used in an explicit finite difference form to calculate the transient temperature distribution in the silicon film and the substrate and the growth rates of the melt pool. The technique is modified so that it is not necessary to assign a constant temperature, Tm, to the mesh element that contains the melt front. Calculations are carried out for a range of laser beam parameters and material translational speeds. The results for the melt pool size are compared with the experimental data and reasonable agreement is obtained.