The growth and advancement of the electronic and photonic industry in the 21 st century hinges on revolutionary new processing techniques that will overcome some of the most fundamental limitations of conventional methods. Rapid isothermal processing (RIP) based on incoherent radiation as the source of optical and thermal energy can play a major role in designing processing systems that offer the tight process control, low thermal budgets, low microscopic defects, high throughput and high yields required for almost every semiconductor device. Conventional RIP can be further optimized by fully exploiting the contribution of quantum photoeffects. The improved performance and reliability offered by RIP will make it the mainstream technology for the green manufacture of microelectronics, optoelectronics, solar cells, flat panel displays and microelectromechanical systems. Key issues related to the cost of ownership, design of RIP system based on the full utilization of photo–thermal effects and model based control systems are described. New experimental results for a number of processing steps are provided. These results demonstrate the importance of advanced RIP systems in providing better performance and lower defects for future devices.