Patent ID: 7034255

Claim:
A thermal processing apparatus for heating a substrate by irradiating flashlight to said substrate, comprising: a plurality of lamp houses, each lamp house storing a plurality of bar-like flash lamps in such a state that a longitudinal direction of each of said plurality of flash lamps extends in a substantially horizontal direction, and that said plurality of flash lamps are arranged in parallel in a substantially horizontal direction that is substantially perpendicular to said longitudinal direction; a plurality of chambers for storing a substrate, each chamber being disposed below each of said plurality of lamp houses; and a transport robot for loading and unloading a substrate by advancing and retracting a transport arm with respect to each of said plurality of chambers, wherein; all of said plurality of lamp houses are disposed such that a direction of substrate loading and unloading by said transport robot is substantially perpendicular to said longitudinal direction of said plurality of flash lamps.