Patent ID: 8089031

Claim:
A heating apparatus for heating objects to be processed, comprising: a processing vessel, which can contain therein a plurality of objects to be processed in a vertical direction including an object to be processed for temperature measurement, the object to be processed for temperature measurement being provided with an acoustic wave element; a heating means provided around the outer circumference of the processing vessel and adapted to heat the plurality of objects to be processed; a holding means adapted to hold the plurality of objects to be processed in the vertical direction and configured to load and unload the plurality of objects to be processed relative to the processing vessel; a transmitter antenna provided to the processing vessel and adapted to transmit an electric wave for measurement to the acoustic wave element of the object to be processed for temperature measurement; a receiver antenna provided to the processing vessel and adapted to receive an electric wave generated from the acoustic wave element of the object to be processed for temperature measurement and having a frequency corresponding to a temperature of the object to be processed for temperature measurement; a temperature analyzer connected with the receiver antenna and adapted to obtain the temperature of the object to be processed for temperature measurement based on the electric wave received by the receiver antenna; and a temperature control unit connected with the temperature analyzer and adapted to control the heating means based on an output of the temperature analyzer, wherein the acoustic wave element is composed of a substrate element of a material selected from the group consisting of lanthanum tantalic acid gallium aluminium (LGTA), zinc oxide (ZnO), Rochelle salt (potassium sodium tartrate: KNaC 4 H 4 O 6 ), titanic acid lead zirconate (PZT: Pb(Zr, Ti)O 3 ), lithium niobate (LiNbO 3 ), lithium tantalate (LiTaO 3 ), lithium tetraborate (Li 2 B 4 O 7 ), langasite (La 3 Ga 5 SiO 14 ), aluminum nitride, tourmaline, and poly vinylidene fluoride (PVDF).