Microelectronics manufacturing technology is rapidly moving toward integrated circuits with submicron minimum feature sizes. This is being driven by the development of devices and circuits with reduced device lateral dimensions, increased density per chip, thinner material layers, increased use of the vertical dimension (three-dimensional circuits), low volume/fast tumaround design (ASIC's), increased use of heterojunctions, mixed material technologies, and quantum-based device structures. These trends require precise control of thin layers processed on wafers and a need for lower temperature processing or a lower overall thermal budget