Patent ID: 6908838

Claim:
Method for treating semiconductor substrates, in which the in particular uncoated semiconductor substrates are fed through a loading lock to a treatment arrangement, which loading lock adjoins a transfer chamber from which, in turn, a multiplicity of treatment chambers can be loaded with the semiconductor substrates which are to be treated, for which purpose, first of all, the transfer chamber and the treatment chamber are evacuated, and then a connecting door between transfer chamber and treatment chamber is opened, in which method a low-pressure or atmospheric-pressure process is operated in at least one of the treatment chambers, and the transfer chamber is flooded with an inert gas before the connecting door associated with this treatment chamber is opened, both the treatment chamber and the transfer chamber, before the connecting door is opened, being purged, in each case at a predefined pressure, with a respective purge gas which remains constant, in such a manner that, when the connecting door is opened, a gas stream flows from the transfer chamber into the treatment chamber and is maintained during loading of the treatment chamber through the fact that the pressure in the transfer chamber is slightly higher than the pressure in the treatment chamber.