| 摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide thermal treatment equipment and a thermal treatment method, capable of subjecting a substrate to heating treatment while an inside of a thermal treatment chamber is kept at an extremely low oxygen concentration.SOLUTION: A semiconductor wafer to be processed is transferred along a going path TP1 from an indexer part 101 to a thermal treatment chamber 6 through an alignment chamber 131 and a transfer chamber 170. A semiconductor wafer W having been processed is transferred along a return path TP2 from the thermal treatment chamber 6 to the indexer part 101 through the transfer chamber 170 and a cooling chamber 141. The oxygen concentration of an oxygen inflow source into the thermal treatment chamber 6 can be reduced by vacuum exhausting the alignment chamber 131 and the cooling chamber 141 that are part of a transfer path and then supplying nitrogen gas to return pressure. Accordingly, an inside of the thermal treatment chamber 6 can be made at an extremely low oxygen concentration. |
