| 摘要 |
<p>PURPOSE:To reduce a floor area and to easily install more systems by a method wherein a process chamber is installed in each stage position of a space positioned in an up-and-down direction and loading and unloading mechanisms of a wafer are installed on the front side of a plurality of process chambers arranged vertically. CONSTITUTION:A plurality of cassettes are installed in a cassette-housing chamber, provided with a load-lock mechanism, which is situated at a lowest stage of a cassette elevator 11; a cassette conveyance mechanism part is evacuated. Individual process chambers are evacuated in advance to a prescribed pressure by using individual pumps 3. When an evacuation operation of the cassette conveyance mechanism part is completed, one cassette is taken out from a cassette-housing box, conveyed, e.g., to a position in an uppermost stage by using the cassette elevator mechanism 11 and locked in this position. A wafer transfer robot 14 in each stage position takes out a wafer one by one from the cassette which has been locked in the position; the wafer 10 is set on a lower-part electrode 6 inside the process chamber; when a prescribed process is completed, the wafer is taken out and is housed in the cassette-housing chamber 13.</p> |
