Patent ID: 8349085

Claim:
A substrate processing apparatus comprising: an external chamber; an internal chamber housed in a space in said external chamber; a gas supply unit adapted to supply a process gas into the space in said internal chamber; and a gas exhaust unit adapted to exhaust the process gas from the space in said internal chamber, wherein the space in said external chamber is under a reduced pressure or filled with an inert gas, wherein said internal chamber includes a lid-like member defining the space in said internal chamber together with both a mounting stage on which said substrate is mounted and an enclosure base, which is a ring member, disposed so as to surround a periphery of the mounting stage, the lid-like member being movable and both the mounting stage and the enclosure base being non-movable, the lid-like member being in contact with the enclosure base so as to seal the space in said internal chamber from the space in said external chamber, the lid-like member having a flat portion that forms an upper surface of the internal chamber and does not make contact with the enclosure base when the space in said internal chamber is sealed and a protruding portion that does make contact with the enclosure base when the space in said internal chamber is sealed, wherein both said gas supply unit and said gas exhaust unit penetrate the enclosure base, wherein the process gas is supplied upwardly into the space in said internal chamber and is exhausted downwardly from the space in said internal chamber, and wherein when said substrate is transferred in and out by a transfer arm used to transfer said substrate, said lid-like member moves away from the enclosure base so as to exit out of a motion range within which said transfer arm can move.