Wafer cooling method and apparatus

摘要

This invention relates to a vacuum processing method and apparatus. When a sample is plasma-processed under a reduced pressure, a sample bed is cooled by a cooling medium kept at a predetermined temperature lower than an etching temperature, the sample is held on the sample bed, a heat transfer gas is supplied between the back of the sample and the sample installation surface of the sample bed, and the pressure of the heat transfer gas is controlled so as to bring the sample to a predetermined processing temperature. In this way, a sample temperature can be regulated rapidly without increasing the scale of the apparatus.