Patent ID: 7476073

Claim:
A vacuum processing method comprising the steps of: taking out a sample from an original position in a given cassette placed on a cassette supporting means; carrying the sample from the given cassette into a vacuum processing chamber via a switchable chamber capable of being switched between atmosphere and vacuum; subjecting the sample from the given cassette to vacuum processing in the vacuum processing chamber; putting unprocessed samples from the given cassette in a waiting cassette so that processed and unprocessed samples do not mix in the waiting cassette or the given cassette; carrying the processed samples back to the original position thereof in the given cassette in which no unprocessed samples are present in the given cassette; vacuum processing the samples so as to prevent the unprocessed samples or the processed samples from being mixed with each other in the given cassette or the waiting cassette; and vacuum processing the unprocessed samples taken out of the waiting cassette, and returning the processed samples to the original position thereof in the given cassette.