On the wafer floor, the bake steps and adhesive cure are what make or break line yield. A 1.5°C drift in the hard bake profile can turn a lot of 200mm wafers into scrap. You need heat that lands exactly where the recipe calls for, shift after shift. What matters, technically Our infrared curing modules keep wafer-level thermal uniformity at ±0.1°C across the substrate, with lot-to-lot temperature repeatability within ±0.5°C. The emitters are short-wave infrared, tuned to match the absorption of photoresist and semiconductor glue. That cuts thermal lag and lets you ramp fast without overshoot. The system runs in Class 1–100 cleanrooms. We verify zero particle generation at sub-0.1 μm counts, and it holds up 24/7 with zero unplanned downtime. Energy use drops 25–35% compared to conventional hotplates, and the tighter thermal budget widens the process window. Why it plays in lithography and packaging In lithography, you run soft bake and hard bake with strict time-temperature budgets. In packaging, glue curing has to hit adhesion targets without outgassing. Infrared heats the film directly, not the carrier, so you get more consistent critical dimension control and fewer edge-bead headaches. You shorten cycle times, cut scrap, and trim maintenance—no more hotplate seasoning, no more bake-induced residues. On packaging lines, that same precision gives you void-free underfill and repeatable cure profiles across 300mm substrates. Here are the practical details Infrared curing is line-of-sight, so shadowing can show up on non-planar topography. We size the emitter array and optics to match your stack height and feature profile, and we recommend a short qualification run on representative devices to lock the thermal profile in. Installation needs a dedicated 240 V feed and cleanroom-rated exhaust. Integration into existing tracks is straightforward, but after any tool change, you have to re-verify the thermal setpoints.