| 摘要 |
<p>A vacuum processing system for handling and processing rectangular glass panels for flat panel displays has a cluster configuration. The system includes a central buffer chamber (24), with multiple processing chambers (10,12,14,16,18,20), a load lock (26) and an unload lock (28) positioned around the buffer chamber (24) and coupled to the buffer chamber through gate valves (40,42,50,54,56,58,60). The buffer chamber (24) contains a turntable that is rotatable about a vertical axis. The system further includes substrate carriers, each for supporting a substrate in a vertical orientation as it is transported through the system and is processed. The turntable has dual substrate carrier positions for rotating substrate carriers into alignment with a selected processing chamber, the load lock (26) or the unload lock (28). Multiple substrates can be handled and processed concurrently to achieve a high throughput rate. The system is typically used for sputter deposition of ITO films and metal films on the glass substrate.</p> |
