Appeal No. 2002-1760
Serial No. 09/355,509
containing two reactors, a turntable, and devices for
transferring semiconductor wafers between each reactor and the
turntable. Claim 20 requires a two-level processing chamber
having first and second reactors on the upper level, first and
second elevators for lifting a boat from first and second
positions on the lower level into, respectively, the first and
second reactors, and a boat transfer mechanism on the lower level
for transferring a boat within the processing chamber from at
least the first position to at least the second position on the
lower level. Claim 31 requires a processing chamber having
therein a boat transfer mechanism, at least two reactors
occupying the same defined footprint as the boat transfer
mechanism, and a boat lift mechanism for lifting boats from the
boat transfer mechanism into one of the reactors.
Zinger discloses a semiconductor processing apparatus which
differs from that claimed in the appellants’ independent claims
only in that Zinger’s processing chambers (10, 11 and 12) each
contain only one reactor and lift mechanism. Zinger’s processing
chambers each have three compartments and a rotary table (14) for
transferring wafers among the compartments (figure 1). The
compartments are 1) a compartment for loading and unloading wafer
carriers by moving them between a transfer station (8) and the
compartment, 2) a compartment containing a reactor above the
3
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