(EN)
A semiconductor wafer processing system (40) including a factory interface (26) operating at atmospheric pressure and mounting plural wafer cassettes and further including plural wafer processing chambers (42, 44) mounted on a frame (16) and connected to the factory interface through respective slit valves. A robot in the factory interface can transfer wafers (32) between the cassettes and the processing chambers. At least one of the processing chambers can operate at reduced pressure and is pumped by a vacuum pump (46) mounted on the frame. The processing chamber may be a rapid thermal processing chamber (52) including an array of lamps (66) irradiating a processing volume (100) through a window (60). The lamphead is vacuum pumped to a pressure approximating that in the processing volume. A multi-step process may be performed with different pressures. The invention also includes a wafer access port (202) of a thermal processing chamber which can flow (210) an inert gas in outside of the slit valve to thereby form a gas curtain outside of the opened slit (206) to prevent the out flow of toxic processing gases.
(ZH) 一种半导体晶片处理系统(40)包括工厂接口(26),其在大气压力下工作,能够安装多个衬底盒子,其还包括安装在框架(16)上并通过相应缝隙阀连接到工厂接口的多个衬底处理室(42、44)。工厂接口中的机械手能够在盒子和处理室之间传送晶片(32)。处理室中至少一者能够在低压下工作,并由安装在框架上的真空泵(46)抽吸。处理室可以是灯(66)阵列的快速热处理室(52),灯(66)通过窗(60)照射处理空间(100)。灯头真空抽吸至接近处理空间的压力。多步骤处理可以用不同的压力来进行。本发明还包括热处理室的晶片存取端口(202),其能够在缝隙阀的外部使惰性气体流入(210),由此在打开的缝隙(206)外部形成气体板,以防止毒性处理气体流出。