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:
Nov. 09, 1999
Filed:
Nov. 06, 1997
Applicant:
Inventors:
Assignee:
Tokyo Ohka Co., Ltd., Kawaski, JP;
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
C23C / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
156345 ; 118719 ;
Abstract
For shortening the time for introducing an inactive gas, such as nitrogen gas, into a load lock chamber of a processing apparatus for substrates, a buffer tank 19 having a capacity larger than that of the load lock chamber 3 is provided in the path of a pipe for introducing the nitrogen gas into the load lock chamber 3 of the processing apparatus. During processing within the processing chamber 2, such as an ashing process and so on, the nitrogen gas is introduced into the load lock chamber 3 from the buffer tank 19 by operating a valve mechanism 21 to increase the pressure within the load lock chamber 3 up to atmospheric pressure.