Patent ID: 6291800
Filing Date: 2001-09-18
Classification: G03F,H01L

Abstract:
A heat treatment apparatus for baking substrates one by one in a photolithographic process comprising:a chamber;a hot plate that substantially horizontally supports a substrate in the chamber;a gas supply mechanism that supplies a gas into the chamber;a linear pipe arranged at a side and higher than the hot plate and extends substantially horizontally, communicates with the gas supply mechanism, and has a plurality of gas blow-out ports, said gas blow-out ports having an opening formed substantially in parallel to the upper surface of the substrate placed above the hot plate;an exhaust mechanism having at least one gas convergent exhaust port which face the gas blow-out ports with the hot plate interposed there between, that converges and exhausts the gas blown out from the single or the plurality of the gas blow-out ports, from the chamber, the at least one gas convergent exhaust port having an effective exhaustion opening length L2 which is shorter than an effective blow-out opening length L1; anda controller that controls the gas supply mechanism and the exhaust mechanism to form gaseous streams which flow substantially parallel to the upper surface of the substrate from the at least one gas blow-out ports to the at least one gas convergent exhaust port in the upper space above the substrate;wherein said controller controls the gas supply mechanism to supply a gas to the linear pipe and controls the exhaust mechanism to exhaust the gas supplied from the linear pipe, thereby forming a gas flowing region in substantially a triangular or a trapezoidal shape within a horizontal plane covering the substrate in a space above the substrate placed on the hot plate in the chamber.