Patent ID: 8538573
Filing Date: 2013-09-17
Classification: G16Z

Abstract:
1. A vacuum processing apparatus including a load lock that transfers a to-be-processed object arranged on an atmosphere side onto a vacuum side, the apparatus comprising: a plurality of process chambers that perform a predetermined process for the to-be-processed object; a plurality of transferring mechanism units each of which include a vacuum robot receiving and passing the to-be-processed object; a plurality of transferring intermediate units that connect the transferring mechanism units, and relays and carries the to-be-processed object; and a control unit that controls receiving/passing and relaying/transferring of the to-be-processed object, and wherein the control unit includes a connection distance calculation unit that calculates a connection distance from the load lock to each of the transferring mechanism units, a transferring operation count calculation unit that calculates number of times of transferring operations of the to-be-processed object to each of the plurality of process chambers connected to the vacuum robot, a transferring operation order calculation unit that calculates a transferring operation order for the to-be-processed object in the vacuum robot, based on the number of times of transferring operations, to each of the plurality of process chambers and each of the plurality of transferring intermediate units, performed by the vacuum robots, and a process chamber allocation unit that allocates each of the plurality of process chambers to which the to-be-processed object corresponding to the transferring operation order calculated by said transferring operation order is transferred.