Patent ID: 9748124
Date: 2017-08-29
CPC Classifications: H01L

Claim:
1. A vacuum processing apparatus, comprising: a plurality of vacuum transfer chambers connected through a vacuum transfer intermediate chamber; and a plurality of vacuum processing vessels which are each connected to the vacuum transfer chambers, and have a processing chamber inside of which a sample is processed; and a control unit controlling an introduction of a purge gas into a first vacuum transfer chamber from among the plurality of the vacuum transfer chambers and an exhaustion of the purge gas from a second vacuum transfer chamber from among the plurality of the vacuum transfer chambers while (i) the plurality of the vacuum transfer chambers are in communication with each other through a vacuum transfer intermediate chamber and (ii) an exhaustion of the purge gas from the first vacuum transfer chamber is stopped, the vacuum transfer intermediate chamber being between the plurality of the vacuum transfer chambers, and in each of the plurality of the vacuum transfer chambers, the samples being transferred to and from the processing chamber of the each of the plurality of vacuum processing vessels.