US Patent 11177144 Wafer spot heating with beam width modulation

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a thermal process chamber that includes a substrate support, a first plurality of heating elements disposed over or below the substrate support, and a spot heating module disposed over the substrate support. The spot heating module is utilized to provide local heating of regions on a substrate disposed on the substrate support during processing. Localized heating of the substrate alters temperature profile. The shape of the beam spot produced by the spot heating module can be modified without making changes to the optics of the spot heating module.