Patent ID: 9631277
Date: 2017-04-25
CPC Classifications: C23C

Claim:
1. A deposition system for processing a plurality of substrates, comprising: a processing chamber; a rotatable wheel disposed inside the processing chamber, the wheel having a plurality of circumferentially distributed substrate carriers to carry one of the plurality of substrates, the substrate carriers having a set of lift pins configured to move between a lower position to seat a wafer on a surface of the substrate carrier and a position extended above a surface of the substrate carrier to lift a wafer above the surface of the substrate carrier; a plurality of gas distribution plates circumferentially arranged in the processing chamber such that each of the plurality of circumferentially distributed substrate carriers pass under the plurality of gas distribution plates as the rotatable wheel rotates, each of the plurality of gas distribution plates including a plurality of elongate gas ports to direct flows of gases toward the plurality of substrate carriers; a loading station on a front end of and within the processing chamber having a first multi-jointed robot mounted within the loading station to load one of the plurality of substrates onto one of the plurality of substrate carriers and a second multi-jointed robot mounted within the loading station to unload another of the plurality of substrates from one of the plurality of substrate carriers, wherein the first robot and the second robot follow the motion of the rotating wheel while loading and unloading; and a controller configured to rotate the rotatable wheel and to move the first multi-jointed robot and the second multi-jointed robot to follow the motion of the rotating wheel to load and unload wafers from the lift pins without slowing the rotation of the rotatable wheel, the controller further configured to raise and lower the set of lift pins to raise and lower a wafer from the surface of the substrate carrier to allow the first multi-jointed robot and the second multi-jointed robot to load and unload wafers from the substrate carriers without slowing the rotation of the rotatable wheel.