Patent ID: 7019263

Claim:
A substrate heating apparatus, comprising: a vacuum chamber comprising a pumping line; a heat body heating a substrate contacted thereon in the vacuum chamber; a partition separating the inside of the vacuum chamber into two areas of the first and the second; an inside opening provided in the partition, through which the heat body is capable of passing; a partition valve closing the inside opening; a transfer opening provided in a wall of the vacuum chamber, through which the substrate is transferred from and to the atmospheric outside; a transfer valve closing the transfer opening; a retainer retaining the substrate in the second area of the vacuum chamber; and a carrier carrying the heat body through the inside opening; the transfer opening and the transfer valve both being provided at the second area; the first area being normally evacuated at a vacuum pressure by the pumping line; the second area being at atmospheric pressure while the substrate is transferred from and to the atmospheric outside, and evacuated at a vacuum pressure by the pumping line while the partition valve is opened; the pumping line evacuating the second area after the substrate is transferred therein and the transfer opening is closed by the transfer valve; the heat body being disposed in the first area; the partition valve being opened after the second area is evacuated at a vacuum pressure by the pumping line; the carrier carrying the heat body through the inside opening after the partition valve is opened, thereby contacting the substrate onto the heat body.