Tokyo Electron Limited

Kenjiro Haraki

Hiroyuki Yamamoto

Yasushi Takeuchi

Hirofumi Kaneko

Yuji Tsunoda

Satoshi Uemura

A vertical heat treatment apparatus includes: at least one loading and unloading partandfor loading and unloading a carrying containercontaining a plurality of process objects W into and from said vertical heat treatment apparatus; a first storage partthat stores a plurality of carrying containers loaded into said vertical heat treatment apparatus via the loading and unloading part; a heat treatment furnacethat accommodates a holderholding a plurality of process objects at multiple levels to perform a predetermined heat treatment to the process objects; and a transferpart that supports thereon a carrying container for transferring process objects between the holder and the carrying container, wherein an upper loading and unloading partand a lower loading and unloading partare provided as said at least one loading and unloading part, and a second storage partthat stores a carrying container is disposed between the upper and lower loading and unloading parts. Either one of the loading and unloading partsis utilized as a third storage partthat stores a carrying container. The carrying container storage capacity may be increased and the throughput may be improved.

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Tokyo-to, Japan

Kenjiro Haraki