Vacuum process apparatus

Abstract

The invention proceeds from a vacuum process apparatus for an article which is processed or treated, resp. at two stations, whereby each station has a charging and/or removing opening for the article. A transporting device is supported for rotation and includes a supporting portion which is successively moved onto the openings of the stations. The process plant is designed in such a manner that the surface normals determined by the surfaces of the openings and the space axis defined by the axis of rotation of the transport device do not run parallel and rather enclose together an angle of 90° or 45°. By such an arrangement it is possible to design extremely compact vacuum vapor deposition apparatuses having a plurality of individual stations, whereby additionally short transporting distances are obtainable and the volumes to be conditioned can be minimized.

Description

3, 5, 19 comprised of the transport arm 5 and the conveyor plate 19 of the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 2 is located in a vacuum tight chamber K the plate 19 must here not necessarily contact the frame 12 in a sealed manner. This situation is obviously different when the chamber K itself is not vacuum tight. The article 21 is conveyed by the transport arm by rotating of the shaft 3 by means of the motor 1 towards the second station 27 illustrated. The driving arrangement at the transport arm 5, the specific construction thereof not forming part of the present invention, and for which various possibilities regarding its design will come to mind to the person skilled in the corresponding art, is sealed by a bellows 23 in a vacuum tight manner against the interior of the chamber K. By rotating of the transport arm 5, the article, namely e.g. the disk 21, is transported into the area of an opening 25 of the second illustrated station 27. The opening 25 determines the surface normal A₂₅ of the opening area. From the approach position Q illustrated by broken lines, the conveyor plate 19 with the disk 21 is again raised into the position illustrated by full lines by means of the mentioned, for instance pneumatic driving arrangement or mechanism at the arm 5, such that the plate comes to contact, now e.g. in a sealed manner, the edge of the opening 25 of the station 27 which for instance can be designed as a known etching or coating station.

FIG. 2 illustrates that on the one hand the stations 7 and 27 and the flange 29 of the motor 1 are interconnected in such a manner that they encase the closed chamber K in which the transport device with its arm(s) 5 moves. The chamber K for the transport device is preferably structured vacuum tight against the environment U. Depending from the prevailing application or operation units (not illustrated) are foreseen at the station 27 and/or at the chamber K and/or at the station 7 which produce respective atmospheres in an aimed manner. Thus, i.e. lines for evacuation and/or gas inlets are foreseen to the stations 7 and/or 27 and/or to the chamber K. A pumping connection 30 for the chamber K and a gate 7 are illustrated in FIG. 2 as an example.

If the apparatus is designed in such a manner that some or all station openings are sealingly closed by one of the arms 5 foreseen, this leads to the possibility of presetting the respective atmospheres in the respective individual stations independently from the atmosphere in the chamber K. In certain cases, however, it will be absolutely sufficient to foresee a common atmosphere for the stations and the chamber K for the transporting device, so that only the chamber must be conditioned or evacuated, such as for example illustrated in FIG. 2, the chamber K beside the load lock station 7.

FIG. 3 illustrates partly in section an apparatus in which the arms 5 project perpendicularly from the axis 3 of the motor, thus defining for a cone angle φ of 90°.

A top view of the apparatus according to FIG. 3 is illustrated in FIG. 4. The same structural members are identified by the same reference numerals. For instance six transport arms 5a to 5f are arranged around the axis A, analogue as illustrated in FIG. 3. They serve alternatingly a lock station 7 for the charging and removing of e.g. the disks 21 and five further processing stations 27a to 27e.

In order to treat disk shaped articles such as CD's or magneto-optical disks having a central hole, such as the disk 21 illustrated in FIG. 2, FIG. 5 illustrates a preferred support on the plate 19. Thus, the plate 19 includes at its center a pin 22 which has three axially extending grooves 23 22′ staggered azimutally by 120°. Springs 25 are mounted in these grooves. They project towards the upright end of the pin with portions 26 slightly domed outwards beyond the outer surface of the pin, such that the disk 21 can be easily slid e.g. by means of a charging roboter over these portions and a slight snapping occurs at the portions 26. This depends from how much the portions 26 will project over the deposited disk 21. This slight snapping-on by the disk 21, only slightly over the culmination point P of the portions 26, allows also a more easy drawing-off of the disk 21 after its processing or treatment, resp. without that a drive mechanism being necessary for the retaining springs 25.

The basic principle of the apparatus explained with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4 is schematically illustrated in FIG. 6. By means of the here e.g. three illustrated transport arms 5a to 5c which rotate around the rotational axis A, the indicated exemplarily three stations 27 with their openings are served. In the manner as illustrated by the limiting line 29 a transport device chamber K may be formed. During its rotation ω the transport device sweeps over a conical surface having a cone angle φ and serves the stations 27 of which the openings 25 determine the surface normal A₂₅. Latter are directed in the direction of generatrix lines of the cone which is swept over. The openings 25 of the stations 27 are located on a great circle of the cone trajectory surface which is swept over, i.e. all have the same distance from the tip S of that cone surface.

In FIG. 7 a further embodiment of the apparatus is schematically illustrated. Here, stations located along the illustrated trajectory cone surface 31 swept over by the arms, are positioned on a first great circle 33 and further stations of which only one is illustrated are located on a second great circle 35. The surface normals A₂₅ of the openings extend again in direction of the generatrix lines m of the cone 31. In order to serve the openings 25 of stations 27 which are located on different great circles 33, 35 the arms 5 can be drivingly elongated or shortened such as schematically shown at 37, such as for instance by a pneumatic telescope drive, e.g. covered by a here not illustrated bellows, analogue to the bellows 23 of FIG. 2. Accordingly, it becomes possible to position stations not only on one great circle such as in the apparatus according to FIGS. 2 to 4, but staggered azimutally, α, on a plurality of great circles of the cone 31.

In a further embodiment of the invention according to FIG. 8 the arms can also be elongated or shortened as again shown at 37 and carry a conveyor plate 19a. Additionally, the angle φ of the trajectory cone is adjustable e.g. in a driven manner such that it is possible to sweep over respective cones having different cone angles φ. Accordingly, it is possible to serve stations located arbitrarily within large limits. Additionally, the conveyor plate 19a is supported angularly at an angle β≦90° at the respective arm 5 and, such as illustrated by p, rotatable around the arm axis A₅. The setting of the cone angle φ of the elongating or shortening of the arm and of the rotating amount at p, as well, is preferably accomplished drivingly controlled such that it becomes possible to serve by such an arrangement stations with their openings 25 which are practically positioned arbitrarily regarding their orientation and distribution in space. The preferably foreseen chamber K of the transport device is again indicated by broken lines.

According to FIG. 9 the rotational axis A lies vertically. The arms 5 are L-shaped and mounted so that the conveyor plates 19 lie horizontally. This has the substantial advantage that thus articles on the plates must not be fastened or held, resp. The drive means at the arms for the movement of the plates are positioned inside of bellows 23.

By the inventive concept and a correspondingly designed vacuum process apparatus, it becomes possible to design extremely compact apparatuses having a plurality of individual process stations including load locks, whereby looking back to FIG. 2 it follows automatically that, if desired, optimally short conveyance paths may be realized or the volumes to be conditioned can be minimalized, resp.

While there are shown and described present preferred embodiments of the invention it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is not limited thereto, but may be otherwise variously embodied and practiced within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. A vacuum process apparatus for processing at least one workpiece, comprising a chamber with:

at least two openings defining respective opening areas for one of treating and handling said at least one workpiece thereat ; and

a transport device, comprising having

a drive shaft rotatable around a rotational axis of said drive shaft;

at least two conveyors arranged at said transport device for at least one workpiece each, said transport device comprising , and a transport arm for each conveyor projecting from operatively associated with said drive shaft;

said arms being operatively coupled to said conveyors to move said conveyors independently of each other relative to said drive shaft and to have at least a radial movement component perpendicular to the drive shaft rotational axis via encapsulated, independent drives, said drives controlling closing and opening of said openings with movement of said conveyors relative to said drive shaft.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, said openings defining an opening area each, with normals on said opening areas being warped with respect to said rotational axis.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said conveyors are additionally movable at least one of parallel to said drive shaft and of normally with respect to said drive shaft .

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said conveyors, once positioned adjacent one of said openings by rotation of said transport device, are movable towards and from said opening in a normal direction of said opening areas.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein rotation of said transport device around said rotational axis substantially define a cone shaped trajectory surface with a cone opening angle with respect to said rotational axis of not more than 90°.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein each of said openings defines an opening area, with normals on said opening areas pointing in a direction of respective generatrix of said cone-shaped trajectory surface.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein said openings are arranged along a circle cut by said cone-shaped trajectory surface by a geometric plane arranged perpendicularly to said rotational axis.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, said transport device residing within said chamber further comprising at least one of a load lock chamber and of a station for treating said workpiece communicating by one of said openings with said chamber.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising gas inlet means and pumping means at least at one of said station and chambers.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of said conveyors comprise a seal member for sealingly closing one of said openings when said at least one conveyor is rotated adjacent to said opening by said transport device.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein said seal member is formed by a conveyor plate for said workpiece.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each said conveyor comprises a conveyor plate with a projecting positioning pin for positioning a disk shaped workpiece with a central bore.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising holding means for said workpiece on said conveyor plate.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, said holding means being formed by spring means acting radially with respect to said pin.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, said workpiece being one of compact disk workpieces and of magneto-optical storage disk workpieces.

16. A vacuum chamber for processing at least one workpiece, comprising at least two openings defining respective opening areas for treating or handling said at least one workpiece thereat ; a transport device with a drive shaft for rotating said transport device around a rotational axis of said drive shaft; at least two conveyors arranged at said transport device for the workpiece thereat, said transport device further comprising , and a transport arm for each conveyor projecting from operatively associated with said drive shaft; said arms and each being operatively coupled to one of said conveyors to move said conveyors independently of each other relative to said drive shaft, said transport arms having at least a radial movement component relative to said drive shaft rotational axis via encapsulated independent drives.

17. The chamber of claim 16, wherein each of said openings defines an opening area with, normals on said opening areas being warped with respect to said rotational axis.

18. The chamber of claim 16, wherein said conveyors are additionally movable at least one of parallel to said rotational axis and of normally with respect to said rotational axis .

19. The chamber of claim 16, wherein said conveyors, once positioned adjacent one of said openings by rotation of said transport device, are movable towards and from said opening in a normal direction of said opening areas.

20. The chamber of claim 16, wherein rotation of said transport device around said rotational axis substantially defines a cone-shaped trajectory surface with a cone opening angle with respect to said rotational axis of not more than 90°.

21. The chamber of claim 20, wherein each of said openings define an opening area with, normals on said opening areas pointing in a direction of respect generatrix of said cone-shaped trajectory surface.

22. The chamber of claim 21, wherein said openings are arranged along a circle intersected by said cone-shaped trajectory surface by a geometric plane arranged perpendicular to said rotational axis.

23. The chamber of claim 16, wherein at least one of said conveyors comprise a seal member for sealingly closing one of said openings when said at least one conveyor is rotated adjacent to said opening by said transport device.

24. The chamber of claim 23, wherein said seal member is formed by a conveyor plate for said at least one workpiece.

25. The chamber of claim 16, wherein said conveyors comprises a conveyor plate with a projecting positioning pin for positioning a disk shaped workpiece with a central bore.

26. The chamber of claim 25, further comprising holding means for said at least one workpiece on said conveyor plate.

27. The chamber of claim 16 26, wherein said holding means is formed by spring means acting radially with respect to said pin.

28. The chamber of claim 16, wherein said conveyors are configured to hold workpieces in the form of one of compact disk workpieces and of magneto-optical storage disk workpieces.

29. The chamber of claim 16, wherein said conveyors comprise a support plate with an upstanding pin; spring loaded holding portions around said pin being biased radially outwardly with respect to said pin, and further comprising holding portions projecting outwardly with respect to said pin and being biased slightly outside the surface of said pin.

30. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said closing is a sealing closing.

31. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, for processing at least one disk-shaped workpiece, said conveyors are configured to hold at least one of said workpieces with a predetermined positioning of a disk plane thereof, and said drive shaft arranged to move said conveyors in a direction which is non-parallel to said disk plane.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein said direction is perpendicular to said disk plane.

33. The chamber of claim 16, wherein said closing is a sealing closing.

34. The chamber of claim 16, wherein, for processing at least one disk-shaped workpiece, said conveyors are configured to hold at least one of said workpieces with a predetermined positioning of a disk plane thereof, and said drive shaft arranged to move said conveyors in a direction which is non-parallel to said disk plane.

35. The chamber of claim 34, wherein said direction is perpendicular to said disk plane.

36. A vacuum chamber with at least two openings therein and a workpiece transport arrangement with which at least one workpiece within the chamber is selectively brought into a position adjacent to one of said openings, whereby the transport arrangement is provided within the chamber rotatably around a rotational axis and carries at least two members for holding a workpiece each, a rotation drive is provided to rotate said workpiece transport arrangement, and at least two displacement drives are provided for displacing said at least one workpiece each with respect to said transport arrangement whereby said members are selectively brought into a position aligned with one of said openings by rotation of said transport arrangement and from such position a workpiece is displaceable towards and from said opening by one of said displacement drives, and said member and said displacement drives are operatively mounted on said transport arrangement rotation drive, said displacement drive being arranged to control closing and opening of respective ones of said at least two openings.

37. The chamber of claim 36, wherein said members are arranged to perform the closing.

38. The chamber of claim 36, wherein the closing is a sealing closing.

39. The chamber of claim 36, wherein, for processing at least one disk-shaped workpiece, said members are configured to hold at least one of said workpieces with a predetermined positioning of a disk plane thereof, and said at least one disk-shaped workpiece is arranged to be displaceable by said displacement drive in a direction which is non-parallel to said disk plane.

40. The chamber of claim 39, wherein said direction is perpendicular to said disk plane.

41. A vacuum chamber with at least two openings and a workpiece transport arrangement with which at least one workpiece within the chamber is selectively brought into a position adjacent to one of said openings, whereby the transport arrangement is provided within the chamber rotatably around a rotational axis and carries at least two members for holding a workpiece each, a rotation drive is provided to rotate said workpiece transport arrangement, and at least two displacement drives are provided for displacing said at least one workpiece each with respect to said transport arrangement whereby said members are selectively brought into a position aligned with one of said openings by rotation of said transport arrangement and from such position a workpiece is displaceable towards and from said opening by one of said displacement drives in a direction with a radial component relative to said rotational axis, and said displacement drives are operable independently of each other so as to control closing and opening of said opening.

42. The chamber of claim 41, wherein the closing is a sealing closing.

43. The chamber of claim 41, wherein, for processing at least one disk-shaped workpiece, wherein said members are configured to hold said at least one workpiece with a predetermined positioning of a disk plane thereof, and said at least one disk-shaped workpiece is arranged to be displaced in a direction which is non-parallel to said disk plane.

44. The chamber of claim 41, wherein said direction is perpendicular to said disk plane.

45. A vacuum chamber, comprising

at least two openings defining respective opening areas; and a transport device operatively arranged relative to the at least two openings and including a member movable relative to a rotational axis thereof, at least two conveyors for transporting at least one workpiece each, and at least one linear drive for each of said at least two conveyors being between said movable member and a respective conveyor of said at least two conveyors and configured to linearly move said respective conveyors relative to said movable member independently from other conveyors of said at least two conveyors, said at least one linear drives being arranged to control closing and opening of said at least two openings.

46. The chamber of claim 45, wherein the closing is a sealing closing.

47. The chamber of claim 45, wherein said at least one workpiece is a disk-shaped workpiece, and said at least one linear drive has a direction which is non-parallel to a plane of said disk-shaped workpiece.

48. The chamber of claim 47, wherein the direction is perpendicular to said plane.

49. The chamber of claim 45, wherein said at least one linear drive is encapsulated within said chamber.

50. A vacuum chamber with at least two openings and a workpiece transport arrangement with which at least one workpiece within the chamber is selectively brought into a position adjacent to one of said openings, whereby the transport arrangement is provided within the chamber rotatably around a rotational axis and carries at least one member for holding a workpiece, a rotation drive is provided to rotate said workpiece transport arrangement, and a sealed displacement drive is arranged between said transport arrangement and said at least one member for displacing a workpiece with respect to said transport arrangement, whereby said member is selectively brought into a position aligned with one of said openings by rotation of said transport arrangement and from such position a workpiece is displaceable towards and from said opening by said displacement drive, and said member and said displacement drive are operatively mounted relative to said transport arrangement rotation drive, said displacement drive being further arranged to control opening and closing of said opening.

51. The chamber of claim 50, wherein the closing is a sealing closing.

52. The chamber of claim 50, wherein said displacement drive is a linear drive.

53. The chamber of claim 50, wherein, for processing at least one disk-shaped workpiece, said member is configured to hold at least one of said workpieces with a predetermined positioning of a disk plane thereof, and said at least one disk-shaped workpiece is arranged to be displaceable by said displacement drive in a direction which is non-parallel to said disk plane.

54. The chamber of claim 53, wherein said offset direction is perpendicular to said disk plane.

55. A method of processing at least one workpiece, comprising the steps of

rotating a transport device member around a rotational axis to bring the at least one workpiece adjacent an opening in a vacuum chamber having at least two openings, and

moving at least two conveyors with at least one movement component radial relative to said rotational axis, independently of each other relative to the transport device member so as selectively to move the at least one workpiece towards and away from the adjacent opening and thereby controlling opening and closing of said opening.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein the controlled closing is a sealing closing.

57. The method of claim 55, wherein the closing and opening is performed by the conveyors.

58. The method of claim 55, wherein the moving of the conveyors is in a linear direction.

59. The method of claim 55, wherein the moving of the conveyors is effected, for processing at least one disk-shaped workpiece, in a direction which is non-parallel to said disc-shaped workpiece.

60. The method of claim 59, wherein said direction is perpendicular to the plane.