Applied Materials, Inc.

J Christopher Moran

Dan Maydan

Robert B Lowrance

Sasson Roger Somekh

David K Cheng

Lance S Reinke

Richard A Seilheimer

Richard M Catlin, Jr

Gregory W Ridgeway

Charles Ryan-Harris

Edward M Abolnikov

An integrated wafer loader is provided for use with a vacuum process chamber. At least one semipermeable membrane provided in the separator between upper and lower chambers of a load lock permits air flow while preventing particulate matter transfer. A micro-environment container is sealed within the upper chamber and a vacuum simultaneously produced in both upper and lower chambers. A movable carrier plate opens the micro-environment container and removes a cassette of wafers from therein and into the lower chamber. The micro-environment container remains supported by the separator and forms an impermeable barrier between the chambers. Wafers are transferred from the cassette to the process environment, and returned to the cassette after processing has been completed. The carrier plate returns the cassette containing the processed wafers to the micro-environment container for removal from the load lock chamber.

Integrated micro-environment container loader apparatus having a

A wafer processing system includes an autoloader mounted within a load lock for providing batch, cassette-to-cassette automatic wafer transfer between the semiconductor processing chamber and cassette load and unload positions within the load lock. The system provides rapid, contamination-free loading and unloading of semiconductor wafers.

Semiconductor processing system with robotic autoloader and load lock

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

J Christopher Moran