Patent ID: 6917844

Claim:
A vacuum process apparatus comprising: a plurality of cassettes for holding samples under atmospheric atmosphere; a plurality of vacuum process chambers connected to vacuum transporting chamber each for processing said samples one by one; evacuation means for evacuating said vacuum process chambers under reduced pressure; a plurality of chambers capable of being changed over between an atmospheric atmosphere and a vacuum atmosphere communicating with said vacuum transporting chamber; atmospheric transporting means for transporting said samples between one chamber of said plurality of chambers capable of being changed over and one cassette of said plurality of cassettes; a vacuum transporting means arranged in said transporting chamber for transporting said samples among one chamber of said plurality of chambers capable of being changed over and said plurality of vacuum process chambers; and apparatus control means for controlling transporting and processing of said samples; wherein said apparatus control means measures a transporting time of said samples and a processing at each of said vacuum process chambers and then determines sequence for taking out said samples from said plurality of cassettes in response to said measured times.