Operating method for vacuum processing apparatus

摘要

A vacuum processing apparatus has vacuum processing chambers (11a,11b,11c) the insides of which must be dry cleaned. When the vacuum processing chambers are dry-cleaned, dummy substrates (30) are transferred into the vacuum processing chamber by substrate conveyor means (13,14) from dummy substrate storage means (1c) which is diposed in the air atmosphere separate from storage means (1a,1b) for storing substrates (20) to be processed, and the inside of the vacuum processing chamber is dry-cleaned by generating a plasma. The dummy substrate (30) is returned to the dummy substrate storage means (1c) after dry cleaning is completed. Accordingly, no specific mechanism for the cleaning is necessary and the construction of the apparatus can be made simple. Furthermore, the dummy substrates (30) used for dry cleaning and the substrates (20) 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.