Patent ID: 6941185
Filing Date: 2005-09-06
Classification: H01L,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A vacuum processing apparatus comprising: first and second processing units for applying a same processing to a wafer; a lock chamber which is changeable between a vacuum atmosphere and an atmospheric-air atmosphere; a vacuum transfer unit having a robot disposed between the lock chamber and each of the first and second processing units for transferring wafers therebetween: an atmospheric transfer unit disposed between said lock chamber and an atmospheric carrier for delivering wafers contained in each of first and second cassettes which are mountable in the atmospheric carrier from a respective cassette to a respective one of the first and second processing units and for returning the processed wafers to the respective cassette from which the wafer was delivered; and a control unit for connecting transfer control including (1) transferring respective ones of wafers delivered from the first cassette to the first processing unit through the lock chamber one by one using the atmospheric transfer unit and the vacuum transfer unit so as to process the wafers in a vacuum atmosphere, wherein each of the wafers contained in the first cassette is applied with processing by the first processing unit in the vacuum atmosphere, and after completion of processing in the first processing unit returning the respective processed wafers to the first cassette, and (2) transferring respective ones of the wafers delivered from the second cassette to the second processing unit through the lock chamber one by one using the atmospheric transfer unit and the vacuum transfer unit so as to process the wafers in a vacuum atmosphere, wherein each of the wafers contained in the second cassette is applied with same processing in the second processing unit in the vacuum atmosphere the processing applied by the first processing unit to the wafer contained in the first cassette, and after completion of processing in the second processing unit returning the respective processed wafers to the second cassette; wherein the control unit controls completing of transferring and processing for all of the wafers of one of the first cassette and the second cassette, transferring and processing of respective wafers of an other of the first cassette and the second cassette at least until exchange of the one of the first cassette and the second cassette in the atmospheric carrier, and continuing of the same processing.