Patent ID: 7229339

Claim:
A chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) apparatus comprising: a plurality of CMP stations, each of the plurality of CMP stations comprising a polish platen configured to support a polish pad and wherein at least two of the plurality of CMP stations have polish platens vertically offset from each other; a plurality of load cups for loading unprocessed work pieces into and unloading processed work pieces from the plurality of CMP stations, each of the plurality of load cups configured to pivot between a load position and an off-load position and wherein at least one of the plurality of load cups overlies another of the plurality of load cups in the off-load position; a plurality of cleaning stations for cleaning processed work pieces unloaded from the plurality of CMP stations; and a single robot configured to transfer unprocessed work pieces to the plurality of load cups and to transfer processed work pieces from the load cups to the plurality of cleaning stations.