DEVICE AND METHOD FOR HANDLING SUBSTRATES BY MEANS OF A SELF-LEVELLING VACUUM SYSTEM IN EPITAXIAL INDUCTION REACTORS

摘要

A device for handling substrates, used in an epitaxial apparatus or reactor (20) for chemical vapour deposition (CVD) onto the said substrates, comprises an internal robot (30) provided with means (60) for gripping and transporting substrates, which are in the form of semiconductor slices (24), in order to transfer them from cassettes (38, 40) containing the semiconductor slices (24) to be processed, the gripping and transportation means (60) having precisely the task of transporting the slices (24), which are present in a purging chamber (34) and supplied from a cassette (38) for storage of the said slices (24), from the purging chamber (34) into a reaction chamber (22) of the epitaxial reactor (20) and, more particularly, into seats (28a-e) formed on a flat disk-shaped susceptor (26) which is present in the reaction chamber (22) of the epitaxial reactor (20) and vice versa, from the reaction chamber (22) again passing through the purging chamber (34), to the cassettes (38, 40).