Abstract: An arrangement and method for controlling individual zones of a hot plate which is employed in a post exposure bake step of wafers in the fabrication of semi-conductor devices incorporating photolithographic processes using chemically amplified resist systems. Provided is an in situ temperature-controllable hot plate which includes temperature-controllable surface zones for supporting a standard single wafer, and having loading means which orient the wafer on the hot plate. The hot plate may be segmented into an array of individually controllable heating zones, while mounted above the hot plate is a thermal detection array, such as an infrared(IR) camera or pyroelectric or pyrometric detector which functions to detect and scrutinize the wafer surface temperature with regard to specific locations dispersed across the hot plate surface. This particular data is mapped into the hot plate zones, and the mapped data transmitted into a servo for zonal hot plate adjustment and temperature control.