Patent ID: 8782918

Claim:
A heat processing apparatus comprising: a heating plate configured to support and heat a substrate; a cover configured to surround a space above the heating plate; a first gas flow forming mechanism configured to form first gas flows within the space above the heating plate, the first gas flows being downward flows of gas uniformly supplied onto an upper surface of the substrate supported by the heating plate; a second gas flow forming mechanism configured to form second gas flows within the space above the heating plate, the second gas flows being sideward flows of gas along the upper surface of the substrate supported by the heating plate; and a control mechanism configured to control an operation of the apparatus and including a computer and a computer readable non-transitory storage medium that stores a control program, wherein the control program, when executed, causes the computer to control the apparatus to conduct a heat processing sequence, wherein said computer is configured to execute a heat process by using the heating plate to heat a target substrate supported by the heating plate, wherein the space above the heating plate is surrounded by the cover, wherein the heat process is performed along with first and second modes of gas flows sequentially set in this order while heating the target substrate by the heating plate, the first mode uses the downward flows formed by the first gas flow forming mechanism to uniformize the heat process over the target substrate, and the second mode uses the sideward flows formed by the second gas flow forming mechanism while exhausting gas from the space above the heating plate to exhaust and remove at least one of gas and sublimed substances generated from the target substrate.