Wafer load lock and transfer system for vacuum chamber

摘要

The cassette (63) holds wafers in vertically facing alignment, and is moved past a station at which the wafers are individually loaded into a processing chamber (11). A vertically movable blade (68) engages the edge of a wafer and lifts it to a position where it can be engaged by a vacuum chuck (47) mounted on the open door (16) of the chamber. The elevator blade (68) is retracted and the chamber door closed.Clips (28) mounted within an aperture in a vertical support plate just within the chamber entrance engage the edges of the wafer and support it within the plate aperture during processing. The processing chamber may be a vacuum chamber, and an inner door serves to define a minimal-volume load lock. The wafer support plate is movable within the processing chamber to various wafer processing stations once the door is closed and the inner door opened