Patent ID: 7740437

Claim:
A semiconductor substrate processing system, comprising: a housing for separating the system from a surrounding clean room; a reactor within the housing; and a front-end for loading substrate cassettes into the housing, the front-end being disposed adjacent to and in front of the housing and comprising: a partition disposed between an interior of the housing and the surrounding clean room; at least one lower input/output port, each at least one lower input/output port having a lower openable closure in the partition, the lower openable closure allowing cassettes access from the clean room into the housing; at least one upper input/output port disposed above the at least one lower input/output port, each at least one upper input/output port having an upper openable closure in the partition, the upper openable closure allowing cassettes access from the clean room into the housing; and at least one cassette storage position disposed at a vertical level between the at least one lower input/output port and the at least one upper input/output port, the at least one storage position configured to receive cassettes transported into the housing, wherein one of the at least one lower input/output port, one of the at least one upper input/output port, and one of the at least one cassette storage position are arranged in a column along a same side of the partition.