A feedforward control scheme is designed for robust performance of conductive heating systems used for lithography in microelectronics processing. It minimizes the loading effects induced by the common processing condition of placement of a quartz photomask at ambient temperature on a large thermal-mass bake plate at processing temperature. The feedforward control strategy is a model-based method using linear programming to minimize the worst-case deviation from a nominal temperature set-point during the load disturbance condition. This results in a predictive controller that performs a pre-determined heating sequence prior to the arrival of the substrate as part of the resulting feedforward-feedback strategy to eliminate the load disturbance. This procedure is based on an empirical model generated from data obtained during closed-loop operation. It is easy to design and implement for conventional thermal processing equipment. Experimental results are performed for a commercial bake plate and depict an order-of-magnitude improvement in the settling time and the integral-square temperature error between the optimal predictive controller and a feedback controller for a typical load disturbance.