This volume is a collection of papers which were presented at the 2001 International Conference on Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP 2001) held at Ise Shima, Mie, on November 14-16, 2001. This symposium is second conference followed the previous successful first International RTP conference held at Hokkaido in 1997. The RTP 2001 covered the latest developments in RTP and other short-time processing continuously aiming to point out the future direction in the Silicon ULSI devices and II-VI, III-V compound semiconductor devices.