Vacuum processing apparatus and operating method therefor
First Claim
1. A vacuum processing apparatus, comprising:
- a cassette mount table for holding a cassette;
a first conveyor structure for transferring a wafer from the cassette held on the cassette mount table;
a vacuum loader provided with a vacuum conveyor chamber and a second conveyor structure in the vacuum conveyor chamber; and
a lock chamber disposed between the first conveyor structure and the second conveyor structure, wherein;
the first conveyor structure is disposed between the cassette mount table and the lock chamber and in front of the lock chamber, the first conveyor structure and the second conveyor structure are respectively provided with a first robot and a second robot, and the first robot is shiftable in a direction perpendicular to an inlet of the lock chamber, the lock chamber is provided with both the inlet and an outlet, which are located in a horizontal line, and an interior space sufficient to store only one wafer, and the second robot is disposed in the vacuum conveyor chamber of the vacuum loader and provided with an arm extendable into the lock chamber, and the vacuum loader is provided with a gate for a vacuum processing chamber to be connected with the vacuum conveyor chamber.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
This invention relates to a vacuum processing apparatus having vacuum processing chambers the insides of which must be dry cleaned, and to a method of operating such an apparatus. When the vacuum processing chambers are dry-cleaned, dummy substrates are transferred into the vacuum processing chamber by substrates conveyor means from dummy substrate storage means which is disposed in the air atmosphere together with storage means for storing substrates to be processed, and the inside of the vacuum processing chamber is dry-cleaned by generating a plasma. The dummy substrate is returned to the dummy substrate storage means after dry cleaning is completed. Accordingly, any specific mechanism for only the cleaning purpose is not necessary and the construction of the apparatus can be made simple. Furthermore, the dummy substrates used for dry cleaning and the substrates to be processed do not coexist, contamination of the substrates to be processed due to dust and remaining gas can be prevented and the production yield can be high.
-
Citations
38 Claims
-
1. A vacuum processing apparatus, comprising:
-
a cassette mount table for holding a cassette;
a first conveyor structure for transferring a wafer from the cassette held on the cassette mount table;
a vacuum loader provided with a vacuum conveyor chamber and a second conveyor structure in the vacuum conveyor chamber; and
a lock chamber disposed between the first conveyor structure and the second conveyor structure, wherein;
the first conveyor structure is disposed between the cassette mount table and the lock chamber and in front of the lock chamber, the first conveyor structure and the second conveyor structure are respectively provided with a first robot and a second robot, and the first robot is shiftable in a direction perpendicular to an inlet of the lock chamber, the lock chamber is provided with both the inlet and an outlet, which are located in a horizontal line, and an interior space sufficient to store only one wafer, and the second robot is disposed in the vacuum conveyor chamber of the vacuum loader and provided with an arm extendable into the lock chamber, and the vacuum loader is provided with a gate for a vacuum processing chamber to be connected with the vacuum conveyor chamber. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A vacuum processing apparatus, comprising:
-
a cassette mount table for holding a cassette;
a first conveyor structure for transferring a wafer from the cassette held on the cassette mount table;
a vacuum loader provided with a vacuum conveyor chamber and a second conveyor structure in the vacuum conveyor chamber; and
a lock chamber disposed between the first conveyor structure and the second conveyor structure, wherein the first conveyor structure and the second conveyor structure are respectively provided with a first robot and a second robot, the vacuum conveyor chamber is provided with gates to be respectively connected to at least five chambers which comprise at least three vacuum processing chambers and the lock chamber provided with at least two wafer transfer chambers, the lock chamber is provided with both an inlet and an outlet located in a horizontal line and an interior space sufficient to store only one wafer, and the second robot is disposed in the vacuum conveyor chamber of the vacuum loader and provided with an arm extendable into the lock chamber. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
-
-
24. A vacuum processing apparatus, comprising:
-
a cassette mount table for holding a set of two cassettes adjacent to each other;
a first conveyor structure for transferring a wafer held in the cassette on the cassette mount table;
a vacuum loader provided with a vacuum conveyor chamber and a second conveyor structure in the vacuum conveyor chamber; and
a lock chamber disposed between the first conveyor structure and the second conveyor structure, wherein;
the first conveyor structure forms a sole transfer structure on which a track is installed, positioned along an inlet of the lock chamber, the first conveyor structure is provided with a first robot which travels on the track, the first robot is adapted to transfer a wafer from the cassette to the lock chamber, and the first conveyor structure is disposed between the set of two cassettes and a set of chambers forming the lock chamber, which comprises a chamber to take in and to take out a wafer one by one, and another chamber to take in and to take out a processed wafer. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
-
-
35. A vacuum processing apparatus, comprising:
-
a cassette mount table for holding a cassette;
a first conveyor structure for transferring a wafer from the cassette held on the cassette mount table, and having a first robot;
a vacuum loader provided with a vacuum conveyor chamber and a second conveyor structure in the vacuum conveyor chamber, the second conveyor structure including a second robot; and
a plurality of lock chambers connected to the vacuum loader, wherein;
the first robot is shiftable in a direction perpendicular to an inlet of any of the plurality of lock chambers, the second robot is a sole robot installed in the vacuum conveyor chamber and has an arm accessing any of the plurality of lock chambers, and the vacuum conveyor chamber is provided with at least five gates connected with the plurality of lock chambers and to be connected with three vacuum processing chambers. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38)
-
Specification