Air bearing shaft with wide operating temperature range

Abstract

A system that reduces the amount of contaminants that enters a process chamber or air bearing via a movable shaft is disclosed. The movable shaft includes an outer shell made from a material having a low coefficient of thermal expansion. This allows the outer shell to be heated to sufficiently high temperatures to avoid condensation of contaminants on the shaft, while minimizing any change in the diameter of the shaft, which passes through an air bearing. The shaft may also have a temperature modification device disposed adjacent to the interior surface of the outer shell. In some embodiment, the shaft may include an inner liner. An insulative layer may be provided between the inner liner and the outer shell, such that the temperature of the outer shell does not cause the inner liner to thermally expand.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.