Inline vacuum processing system with substrate and carrier cooling

A substrate processing system, comprising:

• a vacuum processing chamber having a first valve gate on a first wall and a second valve gate on a second wall opposite the first wall, the processing chamber having a processing zone commencing at the first wall and a buffer zone terminating at the second wall, the buffer zone being sufficiently large to enable a carrier to completely clear the processing zone such that when the carrier is in the buffer zone no processing is performed on a substrate mounted on the carrier;
• a front buffer module having an attachment wall attached to the first wall of the processing chamber and having an opening on the attachment wall and a valve gate on an entrance wall opposite the attachment wall;
• a loadlock chamber having cooling plates therein, the loadlock chamber being attached to the entrance wall of the front buffer module, and having a valve gate positioned on exterior wall;
• a cooling module having cooling plates therein and attached to the second wall of the processing chamber;
• a linear track traversing the loadlock chamber, the front buffer chamber, the processing chamber, the rear buffer zone and the cooling module;
• and,
• two substrate carriers linearly traveling on the linear track such that at any given time one of the carriers may be in one of the loadlock chamber, the front buffer chamber, the processing chamber, the rear buffer module and the cooling module, and the other carrier is at a different one of the loadlock chamber, the front buffer chamber, the processing chamber, the rear buffer module and the cooling module.

A linear substrate processing system, comprising:

• a processing module having at least one sputtering source;
• a first buffer module positioned on a first side of the processing module;
• a second buffer module positioned on a second side of the processing module directly opposite the first side;
• a first cooling module attached to the first buffer module;
• a second cooling module attached to the second buffer module;
• a transport system transporting substrate carriers in a straight line through the first cooling module, the first buffer module, the processing module, the second buffer module and the second cooling module;
• wherein the system is arranged linearly in the order:
• first cooling module, the first buffer module, the processing module, the second buffer module and the second cooling module.