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:
Jun. 17, 1997
Filed:
Jun. 05, 1995
Shigeru Sasada, Kyoto, JP;
Kaoru Aoki, Kyoto, JP;
Mitsumasa Kodama, Kyoto, JP;
Kenji Sugimoto, Kyoto, JP;
Yoshiteru Fukutomi, Kyoto, JP;
Hidekazu Inoue, Kyoto, JP;
Abstract
An apparatus including a structure which separates a first transport robot (high temperature robot), which accesses a first processing part group including the thermal processing parts, from a second transport robot (low temperature robot) which accesses the only non-thermal processing parts. During circulating transportation of substrates to be processed, heat created at thermal processing parts is prevented from flowing into non-thermal processing parts. Semiconductor wafers are circulated one by one between the first processing part group which includes a hot plate and a second processing part group which does not include a hot plate and processed one at a time at each processing part. The high temperature robot accesses the first processing part group while the low temperature robot accesses the second processing part group. Transfer of a semiconductor wafer between the two robots is performed at a transfer part which is formed using a cool plate. Since the low temperature robot is never subjected to heat, temperatures at the non-thermal processing parts which are included in the second processing part group remain stable even when the low temperature robot accesses the non-thermal processing parts.