Patent ID: 7833351

Claim:
A substrate processing apparatus, comprising: a substrate processing chamber; a processing cassette that is adapted to support two or more substrates; a cassette handler robot adapted to transfer the processing cassette between a staging platform and the substrate processing chamber, wherein the cassette handler robot is adapted to contain a lift mechanism; a substrate transfer robot that is adapted to transfer substrates between a substrate transport pod and the processing cassette using multiple substrate handling blades; a cassette transfer region in which the staging platform is disposed that is generally maintained at a pressure below atmospheric pressure; a first load lock that is adapted to support the transfer of the processing cassette from a region of atmospheric pressure to the cassette transfer region a second load lock; and, a second substrate processing chamber, wherein the cassette handler robot comprises a rotary table adapted to: rotatably position a processing cassette under each load lock and under each processing chamber; vertically transfer two processing cassettes between the processing chambers and the cassette transfer region; and vertically transfer two processing cassettes between the load locks and the cassette transfer region.