Patent ID: 7467916

Claim:
A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus comprising: a reaction chamber; a transfer chamber connected to said reaction chamber; a load lock chamber connected to said transfer chamber; a wafer transfer apparatus comprising: (A) a mini environment which is defined by walls including a first wall for connecting with an external wafer storage part and a second wall for connecting with an external load lock chamber connected to a reaction chamber opposite the mini environment and which is equipped with a transfer robot inside, in order to transfer a wafer between said wafer storage part and said load lock chamber via the mini environment in the presence of air flows; and (B) a cooling stage having one end that is connected to the second wall of said mini environment from the outside of said mini environment in the vicinity of a connection port thereof for said load lock chamber and that opens to said mini environment, and another end, opposite to the one end, that is permanently closed with regard to wafer transfer, in order to temporarily support a wafer outside the mini environment, the wafer storage part, and the load lock chamber and guide air to flow from the mini environment through the cooling stage so that the wafer is cooled by the air taken in from said mini environment, wherein the wafer transfer apparatus is capable of transferring a wafer among said wafer storage part, said load lock chamber, and said cooling stage by said transfer robot, and the wafer transfer apparatus is connected to the load lock chamber; and the wafer storage part connected to said wafer transfer apparatus, wherein said transfer chamber is positioned below said reaction chamber.