US Patent 11881420 Light-irradiation thermal treatment apparatus

A ring support is attached to an inner wall surface of a chamber that houses a semiconductor wafer to support a susceptor. When the semiconductor wafer is placed on the susceptor, an inner space of the chamber is separated into an upper space and a lower space. Particles are likely to accumulate on a lower chamber window as a floor part of the chamber. However, since the upper space and the lower space are separated, the semiconductor wafer can be prevented from being contaminated by the particles flowing into the upper space and adhering to a surface of the semiconductor wafer even when the particles on the lower chamber window are blown up by irradiation with flash light.