Slit valve assembly having a spacer for maintaining a gap

Abstract

A spacer for maintaining a gap between a slit valve door and a sealing surface of a slit valve body, such as a metallic insert is described. The spacer can extend the life of a seal by limiting the line of sight exposure of the seal to corrosive gases within a wafer processing chamber, for example, and by controlling the compression percentage of the seal. The spacer may be located on an outer ambient side of the slit valve away from any corrosive gasses that may exist in the chamber. The spacer may be attached to the slit valve door partially in a depression therein, and may be integral with the seal. Further, the present invention provides improvements to a standard slit valve assembly that enhance the effectiveness of the slit valve and the spacer. These improvements include a barrier material to protect the seal, a labyrinth to reduce particle energy, a skew-plane slit valve door, and a recess with sidewalls to continue the geometry of the process chamber in order to move the collision plane away from the seal plane.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.