Patent ID: 6922522

Claim:
A method of calibrating a temperature-detection system of a second heat treatment apparatus among a first and the second heat treatment apparatuses each having a processing vessel, a heater that heats an object to be processed, a thermal sensor and a temperature estimator that estimates a temperature of the object based on a detection signal from the thermal sensor, said method comprising: (a) a temperature estimator adjusting process having the steps of: heating an object for temperature measurement placed in the processing vessel of the first heat treatment apparatus by the heater and measuring a true temperature of the object; and adjusting the temperature estimators of the first and second heat treatment apparatuses based on a result of the measurement of true temperature of the object; (b) a first heat-treatment/film-thickness measuring process including: a first heat-treatment step of heat-treating a first object for heat-treatment arranged in the processing vessel of the first heat treatment apparatus having the temperature estimator, having been adjusted in the process (a), under a designated heat-treatment condition; and a first film-thickness measuring step of measuring a film-thickness of a film formed on the first object; (c) a second heat-treatment/film-thickness measuring process including: a second heat-treatment step of heat-treating a second object for heat-treatment arranged in the processing vessel of the second heat treatment apparatus having the temperature estimator, having been adjusted in the process (a), under a designated heat-treatment condition; and a second film-thickness measuring step of measuring a film-thickness of a film formed on the second object; and (d) an offset-value calculating process having the steps of: comparing the film-thickness of the first object measured in the first film-thickness measuring step with the film-thickness of the second object measured in the second film-thickness measuring step, and calculating an offset value for calibrating the temperature of the object estimated by the temperature estimator of the second heat treatment apparatus based on the result of the comparison.