Patent ID: 8454294

Claim:
A method of cooling and transferring a wafer from a low pressure environment to a high pressure environment using a load lock, the method comprising: (a) providing the wafer from the low pressure environment into the load lock through an inlet transfer port while an outlet transfer port is kept closed, the wafer having a front side and a back side; (b) positioning the wafer on multiple supports provided on a pedestal having a surface for absorbing heat from the wafer such that the back side of the wafer comes in contact with at least some of the multiple supports, wherein tips of the multiple supports define a plane above the surface of the pedestal for absorbing heat from the wafer; (c) closing the inlet transfer port; (d) increasing pressure inside the load lock by delivering a venting gas through a venting gas port positioned above the front side of the wafer, wherein increasing the pressure creates a pressure differential between the front side and the back side of the wafer that changes a shape of the wafer such that an average distance between the back side of the wafer and the plane defined by the tips of the multiple supports decreases due to changes in the shape of the wafer; and (e) opening the outlet transfer port while maintaining the inlet transfer port closed and removing the wafer from the load lock through the outlet transfer port to the high pressure environment.