Patent ID: 6962472

Claim:
A vacuum processing apparatus composed of a cassette block and a vacuum processing block, said cassette block having a cassette table for mounting a plurality of cassettes, each containing a sample, said vacuum processing block having a processing chamber for treating a sample and vacuum transfer means for transferring said sample, wherein said cassette block contains an atmospheric transfer means placed between said cassette table and said vacuum processing block for transferring a sample between one of said plurality of cassettes and said vacuum processing block and moves horizontally in a direction that said plurality of cassettes are aligned over a distance longer than a width W 2 of said cassette block, said cassette table is placed in a front portion of said vacuum processing apparatus, both of the plan shapes of said cassette block and said vacuum processing block are substantially rectangular in plan view and the relation W 1 −W 2 >C w is satisfied, where W 1 is the width of said cassette block, W 2 is the width of said vacuum processing block, and C w is the width of one of said plurality of cassettes.