JPH08119409A - Centralized treating device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a centralized treating device which can couple together a number of vacuum processing chambers by the use of a comparatively long common transport chamber. CONSTITUTION: A plurality of vacuum processing chambers 6A-6B are coupled together on one side of a common transport chamber 4 which is comparatively long and can be evacuated. and a transport arm 30 is furnished on a moving body 28 which travels in the longitudinal direction. The moving body 28 is moved, and a moving body driving means of magnetic type is installed in the lower part of the bottom wall of the common transport chamber 4 for expansion and contraction of the arm 30. This enables transportation of any object to be processed without requiring accommodation of a particle source such as a motor in chamber.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a collective processing apparatus such as a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a semiconductor device manufacturing process, an object to be processed such as a semiconductor wafer is carried into a vacuum processing chamber of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, and a predetermined process is performed under a reduced pressure atmosphere. Film formation on the wafer,
It is general that processing such as etching and heating is repeated many times.

In this case, if the individual vacuum processing devices are provided independently of each other and the wafers are transferred and transferred between the individual vacuum processing devices according to the processing content, the wafers are transferred and transferred. Each time, the vacuum in the processing apparatus or in the load lock chamber connected to the processing apparatus is broken, and a lot of time is required for the vacuuming operation, and the throughput is reduced.

Therefore, in order to improve the efficiency of processing, a so-called cluster apparatus in which a plurality of vacuum processing apparatuses are connected to each other through a gate valve so that they can be communicated and sealed in a vacuum common transfer chamber formed in a regular polygonal shape, for example. Was developed. According to this cluster apparatus, it is sufficient to move the wafer between the vacuum processing apparatuses according to the processing mode, the process can be performed consistently without breaking the vacuum in the processing apparatus, and efficient processing is possible. Become.

[0005]

However, due to the demand for higher density and higher integration of semiconductor devices as in today's world, and further demands for further efficiency in processing and increase in the number of film formations, the conventional method has been adopted. The number of processing units needed,
For example, it is necessary to connect more than three processing devices, for example five or more, to the common transfer chamber.

In this case, it is conceivable to increase the diameter of the polygonal vacuum common transfer chamber used in the conventional apparatus and connect the necessary number of vacuum processing devices to the peripheral portion thereof. Since the inside is a vacuum when the value is increased, the strength of the ceiling portion and the bottom portion of the common transfer chamber must be greatly improved, and the thickness of the container ceiling portion and the like is considerably increased, which is not realistic.

Therefore, a horizontally long common transfer chamber is formed, a cassette chamber and a number of vacuum processing chambers are arranged on the entire side wall, and a transfer arm that can be swung and expanded and contracted inside the transfer chamber is linearly moved by an ordinary linear moving mechanism. However, in this case, since the entire linear movement mechanism is provided inside the transfer chamber and the number of axes of the transfer arm is large, there are many sliding parts and dust, particles, or gas emission. The problem of becomes remarkable.

Moreover, since the power source is exposed to etching gas or the like, it is corroded, leading to a decrease in reliability, and it is relatively difficult to supply power to the power source. Further, the entire transfer chamber has a large capacity, and it takes time to evacuate the vacuum chamber, and the cost of the entire apparatus becomes high. Therefore, the apparatus having the above structure is not practical.

The present invention focuses on the above problems,
It was created to solve this effectively. It is an object of the present invention to provide a collective processing apparatus that can connect a large number of vacuum processing chambers using a relatively long common transfer chamber.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a relatively long common transfer chamber which can be evacuated, and the common transfer chamber for performing a predetermined process on an object to be processed. A plurality of vacuum processing chambers connected to one side, a movable body provided in the common transfer chamber so as to be movable along its longitudinal direction, and a movable body provided in the movable body to carry out the object to be treated. A transfer arm that is capable of expanding and contracting toward the vacuum processing chamber side for performing the insertion, and a movable member that is provided on the bottom wall of the common transfer chamber and moves in the longitudinal direction of the common transfer chamber by magnetic means. And a moving body driving means.

[0011]

Since the present invention is constructed as described above, it is possible to connect a plurality of vacuum processing chambers to one side wall of the rectangular common transfer chamber having a relatively long rectangular cross section. The object to be processed can be carried in and out of each vacuum processing chamber by expanding and contracting a transfer arm provided on a movable body provided so as to be movable along the longitudinal direction of the transfer chamber. In this case, since the moving body driving means, which is a main part of the motor for moving the moving body, is provided, for example, on the lower side of the bottom wall of the transfer chamber, that is, outside the transfer chamber, there are very few movable parts located in the transfer chamber. Therefore, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of inconvenience caused by particles and the like.

In particular, the movable body is formed by the first and second movable body portions which can be controlled independently, and the transport arm is expanded and contracted by relatively moving these portions closer to and away from each other. Further, the transfer arm can have a simple structure, and the generation of particles can be further suppressed.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a collective processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 is a plan sectional view showing the collective processing apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway perspective view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 shows a moving body and a moving body drive means used in the apparatus shown in FIG. 4 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing the relationship, FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the portion shown in FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is an internal structural view showing the inside of the transfer arm, and FIG. 6 is an operation explanatory view showing the operation of the transfer arm.

As shown in the figure, the collective processing apparatus 2 has a relatively long box-shaped common transfer chamber 4 formed of aluminum or the like and having a rectangular cross section. A plurality of, for example, five vacuum processing chambers 6A to
6E are connected at predetermined intervals via gate valves 8A to 8E that can be opened and closed in an airtight manner. In this embodiment, the length and width of the common transfer chamber 4 are set to about 5 m and 30 cm, respectively, but the length is not limited to this. Further, for example, two cassette chambers 10A and 10B are connected to the same side wall as described above via gate valves 11A and 11B that can be opened and closed airtightly.

A gate valve 12A for loading and unloading an object to be processed, for example, a semiconductor wafer W, is provided on the side wall of each cassette chamber 10A, 10B opposite to the gate valves 11A, 11B. 12B is provided, and cassettes C1 and C2 containing wafers W are placed and housed in cassette chambers 10A and 10B, respectively, on a cassette table (not shown) that is vertically movable. ing. For example, one cassette chamber 10A is used to store unprocessed wafers in a standby state, and the other cassette chamber 10B is used to store processed wafers.

On the other hand, a mounting table 14 for mounting a wafer W is provided in each of the vacuum processing chambers 6A to 6E. Further, each processing chamber has a gas supply system 16A for supplying a necessary gas such as a processing gas or an inert gas into each processing chamber.
.About.16E and vacuum exhaust systems 18A to 18E connected to a vacuum pump (not shown) are connected to each other so that a predetermined process can be executed in each process chamber. As a treatment mode, for example, heating / cooling treatment of a wafer, plasma etching treatment, CVD treatment, PVD treatment and the like can be appropriately combined as needed. Further, the cassette chambers 10A and 10B and the common transfer chamber 4 are also connected to inert gas supply systems 20 and 22 and vacuum exhaust systems 24 and 26, which supply an inert gas such as nitrogen gas, respectively.

In the common transfer chamber 4 formed in this way, the moving body 28, which is a feature of the present invention, and the transfer arm 30 provided therein are provided so as to be movable in the longitudinal direction of the common transfer chamber 4. There is. Here, as a method for driving the moving body 28, a moving body driving means 32 is provided on the lower surface side of the bottom wall 4A of the carrying chamber 4 along the longitudinal direction of the carrying chamber 4.

Specifically, a wide guide rail 34, which is made of a material having a small amount of metal contamination, such as aluminum, having a convex cross-section, passes through the bottom wall 4A of the transfer chamber 4 along the longitudinal direction of the transfer chamber 4. It is formed, and the moving body 28 is provided so as to straddle this, and it moves.

This moving body 28 is composed of two members, a first moving body portion 28A and a second moving body portion 28B. Each moving body portion 28A, 28B is driven by a magnetic means, for example, a linear DC motor. It is possible to move independently.
Therefore, on the lower surface of the convex guide rail 34 partitioned from the common transfer chamber 4, a large number of annular armature coils 36 for a linear DC motor are arranged along the longitudinal direction thereof. In addition, Hall elements 38 for position detection are provided in the respective coils 36.

Traveling balls 40 which roll in contact with the upper surface of the guide rail 34 are rotatably mounted on both sides of the lower surface of each of the moving body portions 28A and 28B, and the traveling direction is provided at the central portion of the lower surface. A drive magnet 42, in which, for example, four N-poles and S-poles of magnets are alternately arranged, is fixed along. Each armature coil 36 has the number of armature coils within an interval shorter than the distance between the two moving body portions 28A and 28B when the moving arm portions 28A and 28B are closest to each other in order to extend the transfer arm 30, as will be described later. For example, the drive current can be controlled independently and independently with three armature coil groups arranged adjacent to each other as one unit. By applying a predetermined drive current to this coil group, the generated magnetic field and By interaction with the magnetic field from the drive magnet 42 provided in the moving body part, both moving bodies can be moved in synchronization with each other or independently. On the other hand, the transfer arm 30 attached to each of the moving body parts 28A and 28B is configured as shown in FIGS.

That is, the transfer arm 30 has a main arm portion 44 having one end rotatably supported by the second moving body portion 28B, and a length L2 which is half the length L1 of the main arm portion 44. Auxiliary arm portion 48 in which the set one end is rotatably supported by the first moving body portion 28A and the other end is rotatably supported by the central portion of the main arm portion 44 via a rotary pin 46. And a wafer holding arm portion 50 which is rotatably provided at the other end of the main arm portion 44 and whose tip is bifurcated to form a link mechanism. That is, the support points at both ends of the main arm portion 44 and the rotating pin 46 are aligned and the main arm portion 4
The distances between the support points at both ends of 4 and the rotation pin 46 and the distance between both support points of the auxiliary arm portion 48 are set to the same length.

The second moving body portion 28B of the main arm portion 44.
A fixed shaft 52 is fixedly provided on the side end portion so as to stand upright from the second moving body portion 28B, and a first pulley 54 is fixed to the fixed shaft 52. At the upper end of the fixed shaft 52, one end of a case 56 forming the outside of the main arm portion 44 itself is rotatably supported via a bearing 58, and at the other end of the case 56, a rotary shaft is provided. 58 is rotatably supported via a bearing 60.

The base end of the wafer holding arm 50 is fixedly attached to the upper end of the rotary shaft 58, and the second pulley 62 is fixedly attached to the lower end of the rotary shaft 58. And, for example, a belt 64 is stretched between the second pulley 62 and the first pulley 54. Therefore, as shown in FIG.
When the moving body portion 28A is stopped, the second moving body portion 28B is brought closer to the first moving body portion 28A side as shown by the arrow, whereby the transfer arm 30 itself extends to the vacuum processing chamber side. (See FIG. 6B). Further, if the reverse operation to the above is performed, the transfer arm 30 itself retracts. During this series of stretching operations, the wafer holding arm 50
This means that the direction of is on the extension line of the first moving body portion 28A in the direction orthogonal to the traveling direction of the moving body.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described. First, with the unprocessed wafer W accommodated in the cassette, the gate valve 12A outside the cassette chamber 10A is opened and accommodated in the cassette chamber 10A, and the gate valve 12A is closed. Then, after the inside of the cassette chamber 10A is evacuated to a predetermined depressurized atmosphere, the inside gate valve 11A that partitions the inside of the cassette chamber 10A from the common transfer chamber 4 that has been depressurized in advance is opened to communicate these. To do. Then, the moving body 28 is moved to a portion corresponding to the gate valve 11A,
An unprocessed wafer is taken out by expanding / contracting the transfer arm 30 provided therein.

Next, a drive current is passed through the armature coil 36 with the transfer arm 30 retracted, so that the moving body 2 is moved.
8 is moved to the desired position in the vacuum processing chamber, and the wafer W is transferred. Then, the gate valve of the vacuum processing chamber is opened and the transfer arm 30 is expanded and contracted in the same manner as described above to place and load the wafer W in the vacuum processing chamber. Then, after the loaded wafer W is subjected to a predetermined process, the same operation as described above is repeated to sequentially convey the wafer W between the vacuum processing chambers and perform the necessary process. . Then, when the final processing is completed on the wafer W, this wafer is stored in the cassette chamber 10B for storing the processed wafer W.

Now, the operation of the moving body 28 and the accompanying movement of the transfer arm 30 in order to execute the above operation will be described. First, when traveling on the guide rail 34 with the transfer arm 30 retracted, the first moving body portion 28A and the second moving body portion 28B are desired to be synchronized with each other while maintaining the same distance. It is moved to a desired location, that is, a desired vacuum processing chamber or cassette chamber, and stopped. In this case, the first moving body portion 28A is stopped so that the wafer holding arm portion 50 faces the gate valve of the corresponding chamber.

Next, when the transfer arm 30 is extended, the second moving body portion 28B is moved to the first moving body portion 28A as shown in FIG. 6A while the first moving body portion 28A is stopped.
Get closer to the side. Then, the main arm portion 44 is rotated outward and projected by the auxiliary arm portion 48 provided in the first moving body portion 28A, and as a result, the first pulley 54 and the case 56 of the main arm portion 44 are relatively rotated. Then, the second pulley 62 around which the belt 64 is hung rotates in the opposite direction.
Therefore, the wafer holding arm portion 50 connected to the second pulley 62 can be introduced into the chamber through the gate valve opened in the state of facing the vacuum processing chamber or the cassette chamber (FIG. 6 (B)). )reference). Further, when retracting the transport arm 30, it is sufficient to move only the second moving body portion 28B from the operation reverse to the above, that is, from the state shown in FIG. 6 (B) to the state shown in FIG. 6 (A).

As described above, in this embodiment, the two moving body portions 28A and 28 are provided in the common transfer chamber 2 having a relatively long length.
Since B can be moved in the length direction and the transfer arms can be expanded and contracted by independently operating these moving parts, the structures of the transfer arm and the moving body can be greatly simplified. . Therefore, it is possible to significantly reduce the number of movable parts exposed to the vacuum atmosphere in the transfer chamber 4,
The cause of particle generation can be reduced.

Further, the armature coil 36 serving as a drive source for driving the moving body portions 28A and 28B is provided below the guide rail 34 provided on the bottom wall 4A, that is, outside the transfer chamber, and the armature coil 36 is provided magnetically. By the means, the moving body 28
Since A and 28B are moved, it is not necessary to provide the moving body driving means 30 that generates a large amount of particles in the transfer chamber, and it is possible to further suppress the generation of particles together with the reason described above. In this way, it is possible to minimize the number of power sources and moving parts that are the generation sources of particles in the common transfer chamber. It is possible to provide a collective processing device.

In the above embodiment, the case where five vacuum processing chambers are connected has been described, but the number of vacuum processing chambers is not limited to this, and when connecting more vacuum processing chambers, the length of the common transfer chamber 4 is increased. The required number of vacuum processing chambers can be connected by simply extending the length. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the transfer arm 30 is a transfer arm having a structure in which the pulleys 54, 62, the belt 64, etc. are combined, but the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, the structure shown in FIGS. A transfer arm may be used.

The transfer arm 30 shown in FIG. 7 is laid between the base end portion 50A of the wafer holding arm portion 50 and the second moving body portion 28B in parallel and rotatably supported at both ends. A parallel link mechanism 68 including a first arm 66A and a second arm 66B is provided, and an auxiliary arm portion 48 similar to that shown in FIG. 6 is provided between the center of the first arm 66A and the first moving body portion 28A. Hand over movably. Also in this case, the first and second arms 66A and 66A are similar to the structure shown in FIG.
The length of the auxiliary arm portion 48 is set to half the length of B.

Even in the case of such a configuration, by moving only the second moving body portion 28B toward the first moving body portion 28A (see FIG. 7B) or moving it away (see FIG. 7A). )), The transfer arm 30 itself can be expanded and contracted. In particular, in the case of the present embodiment, unlike the structure shown in FIG. 5, the structure can be simplified because the bearing, the pulley and the like can be dispensed with and only the rod-shaped arm can be formed. Can also be suppressed.

The transfer arm 30 shown in FIG. 8 is provided with a box-shaped or plate-shaped arm base 70 at the base end of the wafer holding arm 50, and the arm base 70 and the first moving body 2 are provided.
The first arm 66A is rotatably hung between 8A and
Further, a second arm 66B having the same length as the first arm 66A is provided between the arm base 70 and the second moving body portion 28B.
Is rotatably mounted.

Then, a pair of reverse gears 72 meshing with each other are attached to the arm base side ends of the first arm 66A and the second arm 66B. As a result, the two moving bodies 28A and 28B can be moved closer to each other (see FIG. 8B) or moved away from each other (see FIG. 8A), whereby the transfer arm itself can be expanded and contracted. In this case, in order to extend and retract the wafer holding arm unit 50 without moving it in the traveling direction of the moving body, unlike the two embodiments described above, both moving body units 28A and 2A are provided.
By moving 8B in the opposite direction in synchronization with each other, they are moved closer to each other or separated from each other. According to this embodiment, the number of arms can be further reduced as compared with the transfer arm having the structure shown in FIG. 7, and the structure can be further simplified.

Further, in each of the above embodiments, the moving body drive means using the principle of the linear DC motor is used to control the movement of the moving body portions 28A and 28B, but the present invention is not limited to this. The structure shown in FIGS. 9, 10 and 11 may be adopted. 9 and 10 show a moving body driving means using a ball screw, and two ball screw screws 74A and 74B are provided below the guide rail 34 and along the same.
Are arranged in parallel and are connected to separate drive motors (not shown). And each ball screw 74
Guide permanent magnets 78A in which auxiliary moving bodies 76A and 76B, which move with the rotation of the ball screw, are screwed into A and 74B, and N poles and S poles are alternately arranged on the upper surfaces of the auxiliary moving bodies 76A and 76B. , 78B are provided.

The guide permanent magnets 78A and 76B are for driving the first moving body portion 28A and the second moving body portion 28B, respectively. One of the ball screw screws of
For example, a drive magnet 42A in which S poles and N poles are alternately arranged is provided in a portion corresponding to the ball screw screw 74A side, and the auxiliary moving body 76A and the first moving body are moved by the magnetic attraction force of the magnets 42A and the guide permanent magnets 78A. The body portion 28A is magnetically coupled. As a result, the first moving body portion 28A can be moved following the movement of the auxiliary moving body 76A.

Similarly, on the lower surface of the second moving body portion 28B,
A drive magnet 42B, in which S poles and N poles are alternately arranged, is provided at a portion corresponding to the other ball screw screw 74B side, and the second moving body portion is generated by the magnetic attraction force of this magnet 42B and the other guide permanent magnet 78B. 28B is an auxiliary moving body 76B
It is designed to be able to move following the movement of. According to this embodiment, the first moving body 28A is magnetically coupled to and moves integrally with one auxiliary moving body 76A, and the second moving body 28B is magnetically connected to the other auxiliary moving body 76B. Is connected to and moves integrally with it. Therefore, by rotating the two ball screw screws 74A and 74B in the same direction in synchronization with each other, the two moving body portions 28A and 28B move in the same direction while maintaining the same distance. Further, by individually and independently controlling the rotation of the ball screw screws 74A and 74B, it is possible to move the moving body portions 28A and 28B close to or away from each other. The arm can be expanded and contracted.

FIG. 11 is a sectional view showing a magnetic levitation type moving body driving means. In the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, a convex guide rail 34 is provided on the bottom wall 4A of the common transfer chamber 4.
Instead, in this embodiment, a recessed guide rail 34 is provided on the bottom wall 4A. The guide rail 34 is formed of a material, such as aluminum, which allows a magnetic field to pass well therethrough and has little metal contamination as in the previous embodiment.

The first and second moving body portions 28A and 28B are formed in a substantially rectangular cross section, housed in the recessed guide rail 34, and travel along the guide rail 34. At the center of the lower surface of each of the moving body portions 28A and 28B, there is provided a drive magnet 42 in which N poles and S poles are alternately arranged as in the case shown in FIG. Is, for example, an N pole or an S pole having an L-shaped cross section (in the illustrated example, N pole
A pole) repulsive permanent magnet 80 is provided.

Below the guide rail 34, an auxiliary guide rail 80 having a wide U-shaped cross section is provided at a predetermined distance from the guide rail 34 along its longitudinal direction so as to cover the outer peripheral surface of the guide rail 34. Is formed. Similar to the device shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a large number of armature coils 36 having Hall elements 38 are arranged in the central portion of the cross section of the auxiliary guide rail 80 along the longitudinal direction of the rail. Drive magnet 4 that is magnetically coupled by passing a drive current
2, that is, the moving body portions 28A and 28B are moved.

On both sides of the bottom of the cross section of the auxiliary guide rail 80 and on the lower part of the inner surface of the side wall, the auxiliary guide rail 80 faces the repulsion permanent magnet 80 and has the same polarity as that of the repulsion permanent magnet 80, that is, an N pole having an L-shaped cross section. The levitation permanent magnet 84 is provided along the rail, and the levitation permanent magnet 84 and the repulsion permanent magnet 8 are provided.
The moving body portion 28A, due to the repulsive force of the magnetic field generated between
28B can be floated and a predetermined gap can be formed in the lateral direction. The magnetic levitation method shown here is merely an example, and it goes without saying that any magnetic levitation method may be adopted.

In the apparatus shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, since the traveling ball 40 rolls and moves on the guide rail 34, some abrasion powder may be generated as particles. In the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, since the entire moving body portion is magnetically levitated and travels along the guide rail 34, the wear portion is very small, and therefore the generation of particles is almost certain. It becomes possible to prevent it.

In this embodiment, the case where one movable transfer arm 30 is provided has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a plurality of movable transfer arms 30 may be provided on the guide rail 34. FIG. 12 shows a state in which two transfer arms 30 are provided, and these arms can be independently controlled. According to this, the transfer arms 30 and 30 can be independently controlled, and the wafer can be loaded and unloaded promptly correspondingly, so that the throughput can be improved. still,
In each of the above embodiments, the case of processing a semiconductor wafer as the object to be processed has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to the case of processing an LCD substrate, for example.

[0044]

As described above, according to the collective processing apparatus of the present invention, the following excellent operational effects can be exhibited. A plurality of vacuum processing chambers are connected to one side wall of a relatively long common transfer chamber, and a transfer arm can be moved and expanded / contracted by a magnetic moving unit driving means provided outside the chamber for transferring an object to be processed. Therefore, the transfer arm can be moved without introducing a particle generation source such as a motor into the chamber, and more vacuum processing chambers can be connected as compared with the conventional cluster-bonded processing apparatus. Therefore, the object to be processed can be processed more efficiently without lowering the yield.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan sectional view showing a collective processing device according to the present invention.

2 is a partially cutaway perspective view of the device shown in FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing the relationship between a moving body and a moving body driving means used in the apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a portion shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is an internal structure diagram showing the inside of a transfer arm.

FIG. 6 is an operation explanatory view showing the operation of the transfer arm.

FIG. 7 is an operation explanatory view showing a modified example of the transfer arm.

FIG. 8 is an operation explanatory view showing another modified example of the transfer arm.

FIG. 9 is a schematic perspective view showing a modified example of the moving body drive means.

10 is a cross-sectional view of the moving body driving means shown in FIG.

FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view showing another modified example of the moving body driving means.

FIG. 12 is a plan sectional view of the device of the present invention showing a state in which two transfer arms are provided.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 collective processing device 4 common transfer chamber 6A to 6E vacuum processing chamber 10A, 10B cassette chamber 28 moving body 28A first moving body portion 28B second moving body portion 30 transfer arm 32 moving body driving means 34 guide rail 36 armature coil 38 Hall element 42 Drive magnet 44 Main arm part 48 Auxiliary arm part 50 Wafer holding arm part 54 First pulley 62 Second pulley 66A First arm 66B Second arm 68 Parallel link mechanism 72 Reverse gear 74A, 74B Ball screw screw 78A , 78B Guide permanent magnet 80 Repulsion permanent magnet 84 Levitation permanent magnet W Semiconductor wafer (processing target)

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location C23C 16/54 C23F 4/00 A 9352-4K H01L 21/68 A (72) Inventor Okihiko Tsuda 1-2-141 Machiya, Shiroyama-cho, Tsukui-gun, Kanagawa Inside the Sagami Works, Tokyo Electron Tohoku Co., Ltd. (72) Teruo Asakawa 5-3-6 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo Inside Tokyo Electron Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A relatively long common transfer chamber that can be evacuated, a plurality of vacuum processing chambers connected to one side of the common transfer chamber to perform a predetermined process on an object to be processed, and the common transfer. A movable body that is provided in the chamber so as to be movable along its longitudinal direction, and a movable body that is provided on the movable body and is expandable and contractable toward the vacuum processing chamber side for carrying in and out the object to be processed. And a moving body drive means provided on the bottom wall of the common transfer chamber for moving the moving body in the longitudinal direction of the common transfer chamber by magnetic means. . 2. The moving body includes a first moving body portion and a second moving body portion, and the transport arm has the first and second moving body portions.
2. The collective processing apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a link mechanism connected to a moving body portion, and being configured to expand and contract by relatively moving the first and second moving bodies. 3. The collective processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein two or more moving bodies and the transfer arms provided on the moving bodies are independently controllable.