Method and a device for depositing a film of material or otherwise processing or inspecting, a substrate as it passes through a vacuum environment guided by a plurality of opposing and balanced air bearing lands and sealed by differentially pumped grooves and sealing lands in a non-contact manner

A method for containing a substrate while passing the substrate through a processing chamber in a non-contact manner, the method comprising:

• providing a series of opposing pairs of differentially pumped grooves separated by lands which define a passageway for the substrate in a space between opposing pairs of the differentially pumped grooves and lands;
• providing opposing hydrostatic porous media bearings for constraining the substrate in the passageway in a non-contact manner;
• and
• continuously passing the substrate through the passageway and the processing chamber, and exiting the processing chamber, in a non-contact manner, such that at a same time, part of the substrate is entering the processing chamber, part of the substrate is moving within the processing chamber, and part of the substrate is exiting the processing chamber wherein each groove of the series of differentially pumped grooves is pumped to a lower pressure than the previous groove in the series from the bearing section to the processing chamber and wherein the processing chamber has a lower pressure than ambient air outside of the chamber.