SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COOLING A THERMAL PROCESSING APPARATUS

摘要

A cooling system and method are provided for cooling an apparatus (100) having a vessel (102) containing a substrate (108) to be processed, and heating elements (10012) distributed coaxially around and spaced apart from the vessel to form a plenum (142) therebetween. In one embodiment, the system (140) has a first port (144) and with a blower (148) coupled thereto, the first port oriented to inject gas tangentially to an outer circumference of the plenum (142) to initiate a vortex flow therein. A second port (146) axially separated from the first (144) ejects gas from the plenum (142). Preferably, the system (140) is a closed-loop system including an heat exchanger (152) coupled to an inlet (154) of the blower (148) to supply cooled gas thereto and to the second port (146) to receive gas ejected therefrom. Optionally, the system (140) further includes flow switching valves (156, 158) between the heat exchanger (152) and the first and second ports (144, 146) to reverse direction of the vortex flow.