Patent ID: 7316966

Claim:
A method of processing substrates in a process system to improve throughput thereof, comprising: moving a first substrate from an atmospheric cassette load station through a stationary load lock chamber to a transfer chamber, said stationary load lock chamber comprising: two load lock regions disposed in a vertical relationship each load lock region comprising two substrate slots and a movable temperature regulating device; wherein said first substrate is moved from the atmospheric cassette load station into a first substrate slot of one of the load lock regions and a second substrate is moved from a second substrate slot of said one of the load lock regions to the atmospheric cassette load station, said first substrate subsequently moved to said transfer chamber when said one of the load lock regions is in a vacuum condition for said unloading; moving said first substrate from said transfer chamber to one or more process chambers located about the periphery of said transfer chamber; processing said first substrate in said one or more process chambers; moving said first substrate from the one or more process chambers to said atmospheric cassette load station through said load lock chamber; and moving the temperature regulating device within at least one of the substrate slots.