Patent ID: 8231731

Claim:
A substrate processing apparatus comprising: a reaction furnace in which a film is formed on a substrate; a film-forming gas supply line through which a film-forming gas is supplied into the reaction furnace; a purge gas supply line through which a purge gas is supplied into the reaction furnace; an exhaust line through which an interior of the reaction furnace is exhausted; a transfer device which loads and unloads the substrate into and from the reaction furnace; a thermal insulation cover provided covering the reaction furnace; a forcibly cooling device which forcibly cools the interior of the reaction furnace by exhausting atmospheric gas in a space between the thermal insulating cover and the reaction furnace simultaneously with flowing a cooling medium in the space between the thermal insulating cover and the reaction furnace, and a controller which controls the film-forming gas supply line, the purge gas supply line, the exhaust line, the transfer device and the forcibly cooling device to perform processing of loading a substrate into the reaction furnace and forming the film on the substrate by supplying the film-forming gas into the reaction furnace, and to perform processing of purging the interior of the reaction furnace by supplying the purge gas into the reaction furnace while forcibly cooling the interior of the reaction furnace by exhausting atmospheric gas in the space between the thermal insulating cover and the reaction furnace simultaneously with flowing the cooling medium in the space between the thermal insulating cover and the reaction furnace in a state where the substrate does not exist in the reaction furnace after the substrate is unloaded from the reaction furnace.