Annealing apparatus

An annealing apparatus comprising:

• a processing chamber for accommodating an object to be processed;
• a heating source including a plurality of light emitting devices, said heating source and provided to face at least one surface of the object to irradiate light on the object;
• a light-transmitting member arranged in alignment with the heating source to transmit the light emitted from the light emitting devices;
• a cooling member supporting the light-transmitting member at opposite side to the processing chamber to make direct contact with the heating source and made of a material of high thermal conductivity;
• a cooling mechanism for cooling the cooling member with a coolant;
• a gas exhaust mechanism for exhausting an inside of the processing chamber;
• and
• a processing gas supply mechanism for supplying a processing gas into the processing chamber,
• wherein the heating source comprises a plurality of light emitting device arrays each including a support body provided with a rear surface making surface-to-surface contact with the cooling member and made of a material of high thermal conductivity, a plurality of electrodes arranged to make surface-to-surface contact with the support body and a plurality of light emitting devices arranged to make surface-to-surface contact with the electrodes, and
• wherein a space is defined between the cooling member and the light-transmitting member, wherein a liquid, which has a refractive index falling between refractive indices of the light emitting devices and the light-transmitting member, is filled in the space and wherein the support body is screw-fixed to the cooling member through a heat transfer layer.