JP3505934B2 - Object support structure and heat treatment apparatus - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a support structure for an object to be processed and a heat treatment apparatus used in a heat treatment apparatus for heat treating a semiconductor wafer or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in manufacturing a semiconductor integrated circuit, a step of forming various films on the surface of a semiconductor wafer and a step of pattern etching the same are repeatedly performed. In particular, the semiconductor wafer is heat-treated at a high temperature. In this case, for example, when the oxidation treatment or the diffusion treatment is performed at a high temperature of about 1050 ° C., the strength of the semiconductor wafer itself is weakened by heat, so that a crystal defect such as a slip occurs in the semiconductor wafer during the treatment. Must be prevented. Conventionally, when supporting a thin, substantially disk-shaped semiconductor wafer,
The peripheral portion on the back surface side is supported at three points, and the load of the wafer itself is dispersed into three to reduce the surface pressure of each portion and suppress the occurrence of slips and the like. Such a three-point support structure is generally adopted in a batch-type heat treatment apparatus that processes a large number of wafers at a time, and also in a single-wafer heat treatment apparatus that processes one wafer at a time. Is partially used.

For example, in a batch type vertical heat treatment apparatus, a wafer boat is formed by fixing both ends of three support rods made of quartz, which are provided with multiple mounting grooves in multiple stages, with ring-shaped fixing plates. The peripheral portion of the wafer is held in the mounting groove and is supported in multiple stages at a predetermined pitch.

[0004]

In the meanwhile, coupled with the tendency toward higher integration and higher miniaturization of semiconductor devices, a large number of devices can be adopted at one time, and thus the diameter of wafers is increasing. Today, the shift from 8-inch wafers to 12-inch wafers is being addressed. Under such circumstances, various heat treatment apparatuses are required to be compatible with 12-inch size wafers, and the wafer support structure is no exception.

With the conventional three-point support structure, even if a high-temperature heat treatment of, for example, about 1050 ° C. is performed on an 8-inch wafer, no particular problem of slippage occurs, but it is 12-inch. When a similar high temperature heat treatment was performed on a wafer having a size, many problems occurred such that a crystal defect such as a slip was generated starting from a portion along the contour of the supporting groove. this is,
As the wafer size is increased from 8 inches to 12 inches, the weight of the wafer is increased to about 2.5 to 3 times, which results in excessive support surface pressure in the portion supporting the wafer and From a microscopic view of the support part, there is a slight warp or deformation in the wafer and the support part, and the wafer and the support part are biased so that they are in contact with each other not in surface contact but in nearly point contact. Therefore, the corners of the supporting portion are in point contact with the back surface of the wafer to cause minute scratches, which are the starting points of slip generation.

The present invention focuses on the above problems,
It was created to solve this effectively. An object of the present invention is to provide a support structure for a target object and a heat treatment apparatus in which a support part of the target object is slightly movable so that the back surface of the target object is accurately supported in parallel therewith. Especially.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a plurality of support rods, both ends of which are fixed by fixing plates, at a predetermined pitch along the longitudinal direction thereof. While supporting the peripheral portion of the back surface of the plurality of objects to be processed by the supporting portion in a multi-stage manner, the object to be processed contained in a sealable processing container for applying a desired heat treatment to the objects to be processed In the support structure, in the support portion,
It is configured to provide a receiving portion that is pivotally movable so as to directly contact and receive a part of the back surface of the object to be processed.

With the above structure, the peripheral portion of the object to be processed is directly held on the receiving portion provided on the supporting portion. The object to be processed is normally held by three receiving parts, and each receiving part is pivotally swingable. Therefore, the receiving part is slightly pivoted so that the receiving part is brought into close contact with the object in the plane direction. To do. Therefore, since the back surface of the object to be processed and the surface of the receiving portion tend to come into surface contact with high accuracy, the contact surface pressure is reduced by that amount even if the weight of the object to be processed becomes large. can do. Also,
When the receiving part pivots, this receiving surface comes to follow the plane direction of the back surface of the object to be processed, so that the back surface of the object to be processed may be scratched at the corners of the object to be slipped. Moreover, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of slip and crystal defects more than this point.

The pivot-shaped projections that enable the pivoting of the receiving portion may be provided on the receiving portion side or on the supporting portion side. Further, in order to prevent the receiving portion from falling off from the support portion, a falling prevention mechanism may be provided. A wafer boat of a vertical batch type heat treatment apparatus or a support column of a single wafer type heat treatment apparatus corresponds to the support structure of the object to be processed having the pivotally swingable receiving portion.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, an example of a supporting structure for an object to be processed and a heat treatment apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a vertical batch type heat treatment apparatus having a support structure for an object to be processed of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a wafer boat which is a support structure for the object to be processed of the present invention,
3 is an enlarged perspective view of the support structure shown in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is an enlarged side view of the receiving portion shown in FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the receiving portion.

First, the heat treatment apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. Here, as the heat treatment apparatus, a vertical heat treatment apparatus that oxidizes or diffuses a semiconductor wafer that is an object to be processed at a high temperature of, for example, about 1050 ° C. will be described as an example. The heat treatment apparatus 2 includes a vertically long cylindrical quartz processing container 4 having an open lower end. This processing container 4
A lid 6 that opens and closes the lower end opening is disposed below the container so as to hermetically seal the lower opening. The lid 6 is provided with a quartz heat-insulating cylinder 8 to cover the object to be treated according to the present invention. A wafer boat 10 as a support structure is placed. In the wafer boat 10, a large number of semiconductor wafers W are horizontally supported in a vertical direction at a predetermined pitch in multiple stages.

The lid 6 is connected via an arm 14 to a lifting mechanism 12 such as a boat elevator for loading and unloading the wafer boat 10 into and out of the processing container 4, and the lid 6 is lifted when the wafer boat 10 is raised and lowered. The body 6 is also opened and closed at the same time. In addition, the inside of the processing container 4 is 80
Heater 16 for heating to a desired temperature of about 0 to 1100 ° C
Are arranged in a coil shape, and an outer shell 20 made of, for example, stainless steel is provided on the outer periphery of the coil via a heat insulating material 18 so as to cover the whole.

A gas introducing pipe 22 is integrally formed on one side portion of the lower portion of the processing container 4, and the lid portion side of the gas introducing pipe 22 is integrated with the pipe wall of the processing container 4 and is guided upward. After being opened, it is opened so as to face the gas introduction port 24 formed at the upper end of the processing container 4. Water vapor is supplied from the gas introduction pipe 22 when the oxidation treatment is performed. Further, an exhaust pipe 26 is integrally formed on the other side of the processing container 4, and a vacuum pump or the like (not shown) is connected to the exhaust pipe 26 so that the inside of the processing container 4 can be maintained at a reduced pressure atmosphere of a desired pressure. It has become.

Next, the wafer boat 10 which is inserted into and removed from the processing container 4 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. Figure 2
As shown in FIG. 1, a wafer boat 1 as a support structure of the present invention
0 has three support rods 28 made of, for example, quartz, and both ends of these support rods 28 are also ring-shaped fixing plates 3 made of quartz.
It is fixed at 0. The above three support rods 28 are
In order to load and unload the substantially disk-shaped wafer W from the one direction, they are arranged at equal intervals in the arc portion of the substantially semicircle of the fixed plate 30. And, to each of the three support rods 28,
A large number, for example 100, of the support portions 32 having a rectangular cross section are provided at a predetermined pitch along the length direction. Each support portion 32 is directed toward the center of the boat. When processing a 12-inch wafer, the pitch L1 of each support portion 32 is, for example, about 10 mm, the thickness L2 of the support portion 32 is, for example, about 3 mm, The width L3 of 32 is, for example, 15 mm
The length L4 of the supporting portion 32 is set to, for example, about 20 mm, but is not limited to these numerical values.

Each supporting portion 32 is provided with a pivotally swingable receiving portion 34, which is a feature of the present invention. Specifically, as shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, the receiving portion 34 is formed in the shape of a hollow cylindrical body having both ends opened and a rectangular cross section. Three
It is set to be slightly larger than the cross section of 2, and is fitted in the support portion 32 in a loosely fitted state. A substantially hemispherical pivot-shaped protrusion 36 slightly protruding downward is formed at a substantially central portion of the mounting surface 34A, which is the upper surface of the receiving portion 34, and the tip of the protrusion 36 is formed. Is the support part 3
When the receiving portion 34 is in contact with the upper surface of the projection 2,
It is possible to pivot about 6 at a short distance. The peripheral portion of the back surface of the wafer is directly mounted on the mounting surface 34A of the receiving portion 34 and held. The receiving portion 34 has a hardness substantially similar to that of metal, such as SiC.
It is made of (silicon carbide) and has a length L5 of about 15 mm and a material thickness L6 of 0.5 m as shown in FIG.
m, and the height L7 of the protrusion 36 is set to about 0.2 mm, and the maximum length of both ends of the receiving portion 34 is 2 m.
It is possible to pivot like a seesaw at an angle corresponding to the height of m.

Such a receiving portion 34 has, for example, a protrusion 36.
The entire surface of a rectangular parallelepiped carbon block in which the portion corresponding to is recessed is coated with SiC to a thickness of about 0.5 mm, both ends are cut off, and then the internal carbon block is oxidized and evaporated at a high temperature. Therefore, it can be easily formed. In this case, the mounting surface 34 on the upper surface of the receiving portion 34
A is mirror-finished to increase the flatness. Also, the mounting surface 3
The recess formed in the center of 4A is made of SiC as described above.
This is inevitably generated when the projection 36 is formed by coating, but since this area is very small, it does not adversely affect the back surface of the wafer.

Next, the operation of the support structure of the present invention constructed as above will be described. First, the wafer boat 1
A large number of wafers are held at a predetermined pitch by directly contacting the peripheral portions of the back surface of the wafer with the respective receiving portions 34 of 0, and the wafer boat is inserted into the processing container 4 from below to seal the inside. Then, the heater 16 heats and maintains the wafer W at a predetermined process temperature, for example, about 1050 ° C., and at the same time, a process gas, for example, steam is introduced into the process container 4 to maintain a predetermined process pressure. While performing the oxidation treatment. Now, during such processing, the semiconductor wafer W in a high temperature is subjected to thermal stress, but the receiving portion 34 is pivotably provided on the supporting portion 32, and therefore, is shown in FIG. The receiving portion 3 along the plane direction of the peripheral portion of the back surface of the wafer.
The mounting surface 34A of No. 4 is inclined, and both surfaces are always maintained in parallel with high precision. In FIG. 6, the inclination angle of the wafer W is exaggerated for easy understanding of the operation of the present invention. As a result, even if the peripheral edge of the wafer W is slightly deformed due to heat stress or the like, the receiving portion 34 pivotally swings so as to absorb this deformation amount, and the mounting surface 34A makes point contact with the back surface of the peripheral edge of the wafer. Instead, it is possible to receive it with almost perfect plane contact. Therefore, since the contact surface pressure can be reduced by that amount, the contact surface pressure does not increase so much even if the weight of the wafer becomes large, and it is possible to suppress the occurrence of slip and crystal defects.

Further, since it is possible to always receive the surface contact instead of the point contact as described above, for example, the receiving portion 3
At the corners of 4, the back surface of the wafer is not scratched or the like, which is the starting point of slip, and the occurrence of slip and crystal defects can be suppressed accordingly. Further, by providing the protrusion 36 for pivoting the receiving portion 36, the pivoting can be performed regardless of the mounting position, and the mounting operation can be easily performed. In the above embodiment, the receiving portion 3
Although the protrusion 36 for pivoting the pivot is provided on the fourth side, the present invention is not limited to this, and the protrusion 36 may be provided on the upper surface side of the support portion 32 as shown in FIG. 7. Further, in each of the above-described embodiments, since the supporting portion 32 is simply inserted into and supported by the hollow receiving portion 34, the receiving portion 34 may easily fall off. Therefore, the receiving portion 34
A drop-out prevention mechanism may be provided to prevent the drop-out. 8 and 9 show an embodiment in which a dropout prevention mechanism is provided, FIG. 8 is a top view showing a state when the receiving portion is attached to the support portion, and FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a state when the receiving portion is attached. Is.

As shown in the figure, as a part of the drop-out preventing mechanism 38, a locking portion 40 is formed at the tip of the support portion 32 and extends a little in the width direction, for example, about several mm. Further, the receiving portion 34 is not formed in a tubular shape having a simple rectangular cross section, but is formed in a rectangular cross sectional shape slightly shifted in the lateral direction at the lower portion of the receiving portion 34 shown above as shown in FIG. The auxiliary receiving portion 40 is provided in communication with each other to form a step portion 42. The auxiliary receiving portion 40 and the locking portion 40 together form a fall-out prevention mechanism 38. As shown in FIG. 9, the cross-sectional size of the auxiliary receiving portion 40 is such that the tip of the supporting portion 32 including the locking portion 40 can be inserted at a minimum when the receiving portion 34 is inclined. It is set.
The width L8 of the receiving portion 34 is set to be shorter than the width L9 of the support portion 32 including the locking portion 40 and longer than the width L10 of the support portion 32 not including the locking portion 40.
At the time of mounting, as shown in FIG. 9, the receiving portion 34 is slanted and the tip of the supporting portion 32 is completely inserted therethrough. Can be mounted on the support part 32 by slightly moving it to the opposite side and then returning the receiving part 34 to the horizontal state.
The arrow shown in FIG. 8 indicates the movement of the receiving portion 34 at the time of mounting. By mounting in this way, the receiving portion 3
The movement of 4 in the width direction is restricted by the width of the support portion 32, so that the receiving portion 34 interferes with the locking portion 40 and can be prevented from falling off. In the above embodiment, the case where the support structure for the object to be processed of the present invention is applied to the wafer boat of the batch type vertical heat treatment apparatus has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and as shown in FIG. The present invention can also be applied to a supporting column of a single-wafer type heat treatment device.

The single-wafer type heat treatment apparatus 50 includes a processing container 5 formed of aluminum or the like into a substantially cylindrical shape.
In order to support, for example, a semiconductor wafer W as the object to be processed, three support columns 54 are provided upright from the bottom and are provided at equal intervals therein. They are arranged in a ring shape. The upper end of the wafer W supports the peripheral portion of the back surface of the wafer W. Further, a lifter pin 56 made of quartz, which can be moved up and down by an elevating means (not shown), is provided in the vicinity of the support column 54, and the lifter pin 56 is pushed upward when the wafer W is carried in and out. . Processing container 5
An opening is provided at the bottom of 2, and a transparent window 58 made of, for example, quartz glass is airtightly provided in this opening through a seal member 60. Below the transparent window 58, a plurality of heating lamps 6 such as halogen lamps are used as heating means.
2 is provided on the turntable 64 so that the wafer W can be heated to a desired temperature, for example, about 1050 ° C. The turntable 64 includes a rotating mechanism 66 including a motor and the like.
It is connected to and is rotatable so that the in-plane uniform heating of the wafer is possible. A resistance heating element may be used as the heating means instead of the heating lamp 62.

A gate valve 68 is provided on the side wall of the processing container 52 and is opened and closed when a wafer is loaded into and unloaded from the container. A peripheral edge of the bottom of the container is provided with a vacuum pump or the like (not shown). A connected exhaust port 70 is provided so that the inside of the container can be evacuated. Also, the processing container 5
A shower head structure 72 for supplying a processing gas therein is provided on the ceiling of No. 2, and water vapor can be introduced as a processing gas when, for example, an oxidation treatment is performed. Here, the support column 54 as the support structure of the present invention will be described in detail. This support pillar 54
As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11 (A), a pivotable receiving portion 74, which is a feature of the present invention, is provided on a support portion 54A at the upper end of the support portion 54A. The peripheral portion of the back surface of the wafer W is directly placed. The receiving portion 74 is formed in a cap shape so as to cover the upper end of the columnar supporting portion 54A in a loosely fitted state, and the substantial center portion of the mounting surface 74A is described in the wafer boat described above. Similarly to the above, a substantially hemispherical pivot-shaped projection 96 that allows pivotal swing is provided downward.
Then, by supporting the projection 96 on the upper surface of the support portion 54A, the receiving portion 74 can be pivotally swung. The maximum swing angle at the time of pivoting is set in the same manner as in the wafer boat. As described above, the receiving portion 74 is also made of SiC with a thickness of about 0.5 mm. Regarding the manufacturing method, the carbon block is made of SiC.
It can be easily made by oxidatively vaporizing only carbon after coating.

In such a structure, when the rear surface peripheral portion of the wafer W is placed on the receiving portion 74 provided at the upper end of the support column 54 and a high temperature heat treatment is performed, a large thermal stress is applied to the wafer. In addition, since the receiving portion 34 is provided so as to be pivotally swingable as in the case of the wafer boat described above, even if the peripheral portion of the wafer is deformed, the receiving surface 74A and the wafer rear surface are And the parallel state will be maintained accurately. Therefore, the mounting surface 74A can receive the back surface of the peripheral portion of the wafer not by point contact but by substantially complete plane contact. Therefore, since the contact surface pressure can be reduced accordingly, the contact surface pressure does not increase so much even if the weight of the wafer becomes large, and it is possible to suppress the occurrence of slip and crystal defects. Further, as described above, since it is possible to receive the surface contact at all times, for example, a scratch or the like, which is a starting point of the slip, does not occur on the back surface of the wafer at the corner of the receiving portion 74, and the slip or the crystal is correspondingly generated. Occurrence of defects can be suppressed.

In the above-described embodiment, the projection 96 that allows pivotal swinging is provided on the receiving portion 74 side, but the present invention is not limited to this, and as shown in FIGS. 11B and 11C, a support is provided. A protrusion 96 protruding upward may be provided on the side of the portion 54A, and in this case, the cross-sectional angle of the apex of the protrusion 96 may be set as shown in FIG.
It may be formed at an acute angle as shown in FIG. 11B, or may be formed as a semicircular obtuse angle as shown in FIG. Further, as shown in FIG. 11 (D), a projection 96 for pivoting the pivot is provided on the receiving portion 74, and at the same time the supporting portion 74 is formed.
A recess 98 for accommodating the lower end of the projection 96 may be provided on the upper surface of A so that the receiving portion 74 is less likely to be displaced. In addition, here, although a linear or rod-shaped support is used as the support support 54, instead of this, FIG.
It is also possible to employ a support column having a support portion 54A in which the upper end of the support column 54 is bent in an L shape toward the center as shown in FIG. In this case, as the receiving portion 74, a receiving portion formed in the same shape as each receiving portion described in the case of the wafer boat described above can be adopted. Further, in the case of the single-wafer type, the receiving portions 74 need only be made in the number of the support columns 54, that is, three in this case, and the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

Furthermore, the cap-shaped receiving portion 74 described here may fall off from the supporting portion when the wafer W is loaded or unloaded, but in order to prevent this, a fall-off prevention mechanism may be provided. Good. FIG. 13 shows a cross-sectional view of a receiving portion provided with a fall-off prevention mechanism, FIG. 14 is a side view thereof, and FIG.
[Fig. 3] is an enlarged perspective view showing a drop-out prevention pin. The drop-out prevention mechanism 100 has through holes 102 formed in the support portion 54A in the lateral direction, pin holes 106 formed on both sides of the receiving portion 74 so as to correspond to the through holes 102, and these pin holes 106. And a stop pin 108 that is inserted through the through hole 102. Rectangular weights 110 are attached to both ends of the stop pin 108. The mounting position of the stop pin 108 with respect to the weight 110 is not at the center of gravity of the center thereof but at a position deviated to one of the centers of gravity.
Is designed to rotate under its own weight. Further, the pin holes 106 and the through holes 102 have a horizontally long shape so that the weight 110 can be inserted in a loosely fitted state with the length direction of the weight 110 being horizontal as shown in FIG. .

With this structure, the receiving portion 7
4 is placed on the support portion 54, and the weight 110 of the stop pin 108 is laid sideways as shown in FIG. 14, and this is inserted into the pin hole 106 and the through hole 102. When the stop pin 108 is released from the hand while being inserted in this way, the stop pin 108 and the weight 110 are eccentric due to the eccentricity of the weight 110.
Rotates 90 degrees as shown by the phantom line in FIG. As a result, as a result of the weight 110 and the side wall of the receiving portion 74 interfering with each other, the pin 108 becomes difficult to come off, and this detachment can be prevented. The stop pin 108 and the weight 110 can be formed of quartz or SiC. In each of the above embodiments, the case where each of the receiving portions 34 and 74 is made of SiC has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it is made of another member having high heat resistance such as quartz or polysilicon. You may do it. Further, the heat treatment apparatus is not limited to the oxidation treatment, and it is needless to say that the heat treatment apparatus can be applied to a support structure for a target object in any heat treatment apparatus that performs a diffusion treatment, a film formation treatment by CVD, and the like.

[0026]

As described above, according to the support structure for the object to be processed and the heat treatment apparatus of the present invention, the following excellent operational effects can be exhibited. Since the pivotally swingable receiving portion is provided on the supporting portion that supports the object to be processed, the receiving portion can be swung along the plane direction of the back surface of the object to be processed, and therefore the peripheral portion of the object to be processed can be rotated. The back surface of the mounting surface can be received by substantially perfect plane contact instead of point contact. Therefore, since the contact surface pressure can be reduced accordingly, the contact surface pressure does not become so large even if the weight of the object to be processed becomes large, and it is possible to prevent slip and crystal defects from occurring. In addition, since it is possible to receive by substantially surface contact, there is no scratch or the like as the starting point of slip on the back surface of the object to be processed at the corner of the receiving part, and the occurrence of slip and crystal defects is correspondingly increased. Can be suppressed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a vertical batch type heat treatment apparatus having a support structure for an object to be processed according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a wafer boat which is a support structure for an object to be processed according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of the support structure shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged side view of the receiving portion shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a receiving portion.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a pivoting state of a receiving portion.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a state in which a protrusion for pivoting the pivot is provided on the support portion.

FIG. 8 is a top view showing a state in which a dropout prevention mechanism is provided.

9 is a side view showing a state when the receiving portion shown in FIG. 8 is attached.

FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram showing a single-wafer type heat treatment apparatus using a support structure for an object to be treated according to the present invention.

11 is a view showing a plurality of embodiments of the receiving portion used in the support structure shown in FIG.

FIG. 12 is a view showing a receiving portion when an upper end of a support column is bent into an L shape.

FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view of a receiving portion provided with a fall prevention mechanism.

FIG. 14 is a side view of a receiving portion provided with a dropout prevention mechanism.

FIG. 15 is an enlarged perspective view showing a dropout prevention pin.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 Heat treatment equipment 4 processing vessels 10 Wafer boat (support structure) 28 Support rod 32 Support 34 Receiver 34A mounting surface 36 Protrusion 38 Fall-out prevention mechanism 50 heat treatment equipment 52 processing container 54 Support columns (support structure) 54A support 62 heating lamp 74 Receiver 74A mounting surface 96 protrusions 100 Fall prevention mechanism 108 stop pin 110 weight W Semiconductor wafer (Processing object)

Claims (7)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of support rods, both ends of which are fixed by fixing plates, are provided with supporting portions provided at a predetermined pitch along the longitudinal direction of the support rods to hold the peripheral portions of the back surfaces of the plurality of objects to be processed. In the support structure of the object to be processed, which is supported in a multi-stage manner and is housed in a processable container for performing a desired heat treatment on the object to be processed, the support portion has one of a back surface of the object to be processed. A support structure for an object to be processed, characterized in that a receiving part is provided which is pivotally swingable so as to directly contact with the part and receive the part. 2. A peripheral edge of a rear surface of the object to be processed by a support portion at an upper end of a plurality of support columns provided upright from a bottom portion of a processing container which can be hermetically sealed so as to perform a desired heat treatment on the object. In a support structure for an object to be processed that supports a portion, the support portion is provided with a receiving portion that is pivotally swingable to directly contact a portion of the back surface of the object to receive the same. A support structure for an object to be processed which is configured as described above. 3. The support structure for an object to be processed according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the pivot-shaped projection that enables the pivotal swing is provided on the receiving portion. 4. The support structure for an object to be processed according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the pivot-shaped projection that enables the pivotal swing is provided on the support portion. 5. The support structure for an object to be processed according to claim 1, further comprising a drop-out preventing mechanism for preventing the receiving section from falling off from the support section. 6. A support for an object to be processed according to claim 1, wherein a vertically long cylindrical processing container having an open lower end, and a plurality of objects to be processed are supported horizontally in a plurality of stages at a predetermined pitch in a vertical direction. A structure, an elevating mechanism for vertically moving the support structure for the object to be processed into and out of the processing container from below, and a gas introducing means for introducing a gas required for processing into the processing container. A heat treatment apparatus comprising: a heating unit that is provided around the inside of the processing container to heat the object to be processed; and an exhaust system that exhausts an atmosphere in the processing container. 7. A treatment container formed in a cylindrical shape, a support structure for an object to be treated according to claim 2, which is provided to support the object to be treated contained in the treatment container, and the treatment. A transparent window provided at the bottom of the container in an airtight manner, a heating means for irradiating the object to be processed with heat rays to heat the object to be processed through the transparent window, and a gas required for processing into the processing container. A heat treatment apparatus comprising: a gas introduction unit that introduces the gas; and an exhaust system that exhausts the atmosphere in the processing container.