Patent ID: 7059817

Claim:
A method for processing wafers, the method comprising the steps of: providing a first pair of load locks and a second pair of load locks, each of the load locks having a first portion opening to atmosphere and a second portion opening to vacuum in a vacuum chamber, said vacuum chamber including a first vacuum robot and a second vacuum robot for handling the wafers in vacuum; controlling the first and second pairs of load locks in a desired sequence to cycle the wafers from atmosphere to vacuum and back to atmosphere; having the first vacuum robot in the vacuum chamber remove a first wafer from a first load lock of the first pair of load locks, transport said first wafer to a process station for wafer processing in the vacuum chamber and loading the first wafer into a second load lock of the first pair when processing of the first wafer is complete; and having the second vacuum robot in the vacuum chamber remove a second wafer from a first load lock of the second pair of load locks, transport said second wafer to a process station for wafer processing in the vacuum chamber and loading the second of the wafers into a second load lock of the second pair of load locks when processing of the second wafer in the vacuum chamber is complete, wherein said first and second vacuum robots are controlled to reduce the time between processing of successive wafers.