Patent ID: 7033168

Claim:
A wafer boat for use in heat treatment of semiconductor wafers in a vertical furnace, the wafer boat comprising: support rods disposed in fixed arrangement relative to each other and extending generally vertically when the wafer boat is placed in the vertical furnace; fingers supported by the support rods and extending from the rods, the fingers being arranged in groups lying generally in different common horizontal planes along the vertical extent of the support rods; wafer holder platforms each adapted to be supported by respective groups of fingers generally at different ones of said horizontal planes, the fingers being adapted to underlie the wafer holder platforms and support the platforms at support locations, the wafer holder platforms each being sized and shaped for receiving one of the semiconductor wafers thereon; the fingers and wafer holder platforms each having a respective first overall maximum thickness, each support location of at least one of the fingers and the wafer holder platforms having a second maximum thickness less than the first overall maximum thickness.