Abstract: Provided is a method for cooling an object to be processed. The cooling method is provided with a step of placing the object in a heated state on a stage, and a step of cooling the object by blowing a cooling gas to a region the near-center region of the object placed on the stage, including the center thereof.

Abstract: A vacuum processing system includes CVD processing chambers to perform a CVD process on a wafer W under a vacuum, and a transfer chamber having loading/unloading holes to load/unload the wafer W and being connected to the CVD processing chambers via gate valves G capable of opening/closing the loading/unloading holes. The transfer chamber includes a transfer mechanism to load/unload the wafer W to/from the CVD processing chambers via the loading/unloading holes and the inside of the transfer chamber is maintained in a vacuum state. The vacuum processing system also includes purge-gas discharge members provided near the loading/unloading holes. In a state where the transfer chamber and any one of the processing chambers are communicated with each other by opening of the gate valve G, the purge-gas discharge member discharges a purge gas to the communicated CVD processing chamber via the loading/unloading hole.