Patent ID: 7605095

Claim:
A heat processing method for forming an oxide film in a semiconductor process, the method comprising: placing a plurality of target substrates stacked at intervals in a vertical direction within a process field of a process container, each of the target substrates including a process object layer on its surface; supplying an oxidizing gas and a deoxidizing gas to the process field while heating the process field, thereby causing the oxidizing gas and the deoxidizing gas to react with each other to generate oxygen radicals and hydroxyl group radicals, and performing oxidation on the process object layer of the target substrates by use of the oxygen radicals and the hydroxyl group radicals; and heating the process object layer processed by the oxidation, within an atmosphere of an annealing gas comprising ozone or oxidizing radicals, thereby performing annealing on the process object layer, wherein the oxidizing gas comprises one or more gases selected from the group consisting of O 2 , N 2 O, NO, NO 2 , and O 3 , and the deoxidizing gas comprises one or more gases selected from the group consisting of H 2 , NH 3 , CH 4 , HCl, and deuterium, and wherein the oxidation is arranged to use a process temperature of 500 to 1,200° C. and a process pressure of 0.02 Torr (2.7 Pa) to 3.0 Torr (400 Pa).