Abstract: Provided is a gate valve for opening and closing an aperture formed in a body of a chamber and designed so that an object is loaded into or unloaded from the chamber, comprising a lift mechanism provided on a side portion of the chamber body, a supporting portion supported by a lift mechanism for up-and-down motion, a valve plate supported by the supporting portion and movable between a closed position such as to close the aperture of the chamber body and an open position such that the valve plate is separated from the aperture to leave the aperture open as the supporting portion is moved up and down by the lift mechanism, and a separating mechanism for allowing the valve plate to move to a position ahead of the aperture so that the valve plate is separated from the aperture.

Abstract: A vacuum process apparatus includes a convey chamber having a plurality of loading/unloading ports and an airtight structure kept in a vacuum when a target object is conveyed, at least one preliminary vacuum chamber connected to the convey chamber through a loading/unloading port, a plurality of vacuum process chambers connected to the convey chamber through the loading/unloading ports and each having a vacuum process mechanism, a plurality of gate valves for opening/closing the plurality of loading/unloading ports, and a multi-joint arm member, arranged in the convey chamber, for conveying the target object between the convey chamber and the vacuum process chambers, and between the convey chamber and the preliminary chamber. The convey chamber is evacuated through a bearing for a pivot shaft of the multi-joint arm member.

Abstract: A magnetron plasma etching system has a plurality of processing chambers connected to a common transfer chamber. Each processing chamber has a pair of counter electrodes for generating an electric field and a magnet mechanism for generating a magnetic field having an N-S axis crossing the electric field. All magnetic fields are rotated in the same plane. The rotation of the magnetic fields is controlled by a controller. When one of the magnetic fields is rotated, the other magnetic fields are rotated at equal speed such that the directions of N-S axes thereof are parallel and identical to that of the one of the magnetic fields.