Patent ID: 6977014

Claim:
A wafer processing system comprising: a load lock having a pedestal configured to lift a single wafer from a plurality of pins to support only the single wafer during a pump down of the load lock, the pedestal being an only wafer support located within the load lock, the load lock having an integral cooling unit for cooling the single wafer, the load lock being separated from a load chamber by a closeable opening that faces a vacuum robot in the load chamber; a transport module having the load chamber, a transfer chamber, and a pass-through chamber located between the load chamber and the transfer chamber, the load chamber being coupled to the load lock; an intermediate process module coupled to the load chamber and the transfer chamber; a loader configured to receive a removable cassette containing a plurality of wafers to be processed; an atmospheric robot configured to transfer a wafer between the load lock and the loader, the atmospheric robot being under atmospheric pressure during normal operation; a first set of process modules coupled to the load chamber; and a second set of process modules coupled to the transfer chamber.