Tokyo Electron Limited

Toru Sato

Keisuke Suzuki

Tsukasa Yonekawa

Wenling Wang

Tatsuo Nishita

Toshiyuki Ikeuchi

The present invention relates to a thermal processing method includes a first thermal processing step that carries out thermal processing steps using a plurality of first substrates, wherein thin films are formed on surfaces of the plurality of first substrates by means of less consumption of the process gas than on surfaces of production substrates. Then, a second thermal processing step carries out thermal processing steps by using a plurality of second substrates, wherein thin films are formed on surfaces of the plurality of second substrates by means of more consumption of the process gas than on the surfaces of the plurality of first substrates, and wherein heating units are respectively adjusted to respective temperature set values set during the previous step. Then, a third thermal processing step carries out thermal processing steps by using production substrates as the plurality of substrates, wherein the plurality of heating units are respectively adjusted to the respective temperature set values corrected during the previous step.

Heat treatment method and heat treatment apparatus

A method for oxidation of an object to be processed is provided wherein an oxide film can provide favorable film quality and a laminate structure of nitride film and oxide film can be obtained by a thermal oxidation of a nitride film. In a method for oxidation of a surface of an object to be processed in a single processing containerwhich can contain a plurality of objects to be processed, at least a nitride film is exposed on said surface, and said oxidation is performed by mainly using active hydroxyl/oxygen species in a vacuum atmosphere, setting a processing pressure to 133 Pa or below, and setting a processing temperature to 400&#xb0; C. or above. Under these conditions, high interplanar uniformity is maintained and oxide films with favorable film quality are obtained by oxidizing nitride films on the surfaces of a plurality of objects to be processed.

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Toru Sato