Patent ID: 7918939

Claim:
A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus comprising: a plurality of vacuum chambers corresponding to a plurality of processing sections necessary for manufacturing a semiconductor device; an exhaust device connected to each vacuum chamber; a plate shaped guide plate arranged at the bottom of each vacuum chamber and having a plurality of gas emission holes; a gas supply source for supplying gas to the gas emission holes; a shutter located between each adjacent pair of vacuum chambers; a tray mounted on the guide plate of one of the vacuum chambers for receiving a substrate which is to be processed in the vacuum chambers, wherein the tray includes a plurality of engagement parts arranged along a moving direction of the tray, and wherein each engagement part is one of a recess and a projection; a conveying function section having a conveying arm that contacts the engagement parts of the tray, individually and detachably, to move the tray from a first vacuum chamber to a second adjacent vacuum chamber along the guide plates in the first and second vacuum chambers, wherein the conveying arm engages a first engagement part of the tray to cause the tray to move partway to a target position, and wherein the conveying arm releases the first engagement part and engages a second engagement part of the tray to move the tray to the target position; and a controlling function section, the controlling function section performing the control so as to open the shutter between the first and second vacuum chambers, emit gas from the gas emission holes of the guide plates in the first and second vacuum chambers, and move the tray in one vacuum chamber, which is floated by the emitted gas, from the guide plate of one vacuum chamber to the guide plate of the other vacuum chamber along the guide plates by means of the conveying arm.