Patent ID: 8524004

Claim:
A substrate curing chamber for processing a plurality of wafers in batch mode, the chamber comprising: a vertically aligned housing having first and second processing areas separated by an internal divider, the first processing area positioned directly over the second processing area; a multi-zone heater operatively coupled to the housing to heat the first and second processing areas independent of each other; a wafer transport adapted to hold a plurality of wafers within either the first or second processing area for processing; a first gas distribution system adapted to introduce a process gas through the first processing area and a second gas distribution system adapted to introduce a process gas through the second processing area; a gas exhaust system configured to exhaust process gases introduced into the first and second processing areas; a pedestal, operatively coupled to the wafer transport, to move the wafer transport into an upper position in which the plurality of wafers are positioned in the second processing area and a lower position in which the plurality of wafers are positioned in the first processing area; and an access door that can be moved between an open position in which wafers can be loaded onto and removed from the wafer transport and a closed sealed position; wherein the wafer transport includes top and bottom isolation plates that can be moved in contact with the divider to minimize fluid communication between the first and second processing areas during substrate processing.