Patent ID: 7776226

Claim:
A method of manufacturing semiconductor devices in a multi-chamber wafer processing system, comprising: providing a first wafer on a cassette stage; maintaining a rectangular wafer transfer chamber that is adjacent to and separate from the cassette stage without a vacuum, the rectangular wafer transfer chamber providing space for transportation of the first wafer; transferring the first wafer through the rectangular wafer transfer chamber using a transfer mechanism installed in the rectangular wafer transfer chamber from the cassette stage to a load lock chamber that is adjacent to the rectangular wafer transfer chamber, the load lock chamber aligned in parallel with a long side of the rectangular wafer transfer chamber, wherein the transfer mechanism is used to extract the first wafer from the cassette stage and insert the first wafer into the load lock chamber; providing a low vacuum pressure in the load lock chamber; transferring the first wafer from the load lock chamber directly to one of a plurality of processing chambers adjacent to the load lock chamber using a transfer arm installed in the load lock chamber, wherein the transfer arm is separate from the transfer mechanism; etching the first wafer in the one of a plurality of processing chambers; transferring the first wafer from the one of a plurality of processing chambers to the load lock chamber using the transfer arm; and transferring the first wafer from the load lock chamber in a direction opposite to the one of the processing chambers through the rectangular wafer transfer chamber without a vacuum using the transfer mechanism, wherein the load lock chamber is configured to receive a plurality of wafers from the transfer mechanism.