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:
Oct. 26, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 29, 1997
Tamio Endo, Inagi, JP;
Yoshiyuki Harima, Zushi, JP;
Tokyo Electron Limited, Tokyo-to, JP;
Abstract
There is provided a cassette carrying-in system, which can rotate a cassette housing therein substrates to be treated so that the substrates are changed from a vertical state to a horizontal state and which can carry the cassette in, e.g., a load-lock chamber of a vacuum processing unit. The cassette carrying-in system is provided for carrying a cassette, in which a plurality of substrates to be processed are arranged in parallel, in a processing unit for treating the substrates. The cassette carrying-in system comprises: a moving body having a first supporting portion for holding a bottom portion of the cassette so that the substrates to be processed are arranged vertically, and a second supporting portion, which is rotatable with the first supporting portion and which supports thereon a side of the cassette when the cassette is inclined, the second supporting portion supporting thereon the side serving as a bottom of the cassette when the substrates to be processed are arranged horizontally; a rotating mechanism for rotating the first and second supporting portions so that the substrates in the cassette are changed between a vertical state and a horizontal state; and a running mechanism for running the moving body so that the cassette supported on the first and second supporting portions moves between inside and outside the processing unit.