SUBSTRATE PROCESSING PLATFORM ALLOWING PROCESSING IN DIFFERENT AMBIENTS

摘要

A semiconductor wafer processing system (40) including a factory interface (26) operating at atmospheric pressure and mounting plural wafer cassettes and further including plural wafer processing chambers (42, 44) mounted on a frame (16) and connected to the factory interface through respective slit valves. A robot in the factory interface can transfer wafers (32) between the cassettes and the processing chambers. At least one of the processing chambers can operate at reduced pressure and is pumped by a vacuum pump (46) mounted on the frame. The processing chamber may be a rapid thermal processing chamber (52) including an array of lamps (66) irradiating a processing volume (100) through a window (60). The lamphead is vacuum pumped to a pressure approximating that in the processing volume. A multi-step process may be performed with different pressures. The invention also includes a wafer access port (202) of a thermal processing chamber which can flow (210) an inert gas in outside of the slit valve to thereby form a gas curtain outside of the opened slit (206) to prevent the out flow of toxic processing gases.