The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 14, 2018
Filed:
Apr. 30, 2013
Tokyo Electron Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Atsushi Gomi, Nirasaki, JP;
Tetsuya Miyashita, Nirasaki, JP;
Shinji Furukawa, Nirasaki, JP;
Koji Maeda, Nirasaki, JP;
Masamichi Hara, Nirasaki, JP;
Naoyuki Suzuki, Nirasaki, JP;
Hiroshi Miki, Nirasaki, JP;
Toshiharu Hirata, Nirasaki, JP;
TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An apparatus includes a row of substrate transfer deviceswhich can deliver a wafer W within a transfer chamber; and rows of process modules PM, arranged at right and left sides of the row of the substrate transfer devices along the row, configured to perform processes to the wafer W. The rows of the process modules PM are arranged such that each of the processes can be performed by at least two process modules PM. Thus, when a single process module PM cannot be used, the wafer W can be rapidly transferred to another process module PM which can perform the same process as performed in the corresponding process module. Therefore, even when the single process module PM cannot be used, the processes can be continued to the wafers W without stopping an operation of the apparatus, so that the number of wasted wafers W can be reduced.