Appeal No. 1997-3312
Application No. 08/183,787
a process chamber having a transfer port for an object to
be processed;
a first electrode horizontally extending within said
process chamber and supporting said object to be processed;
a second electrode located within said process chamber
and extending above said first electrode and parallel thereto;
gas-supplying means for supplying a process gas into a
space between said electrodes;
electric field generating means for generating an
electric field in the space between said electrodes, to
thereby form plasma of the process gas;
magnetic field generating means having at least two
permanent magnets located outside said process chamber, two of
said permanent magnets being oppositely positioned so as to
sandwich the space between said electrodes, for generating a
horizontal magnetic field which extends through the space
between said electrodes, form one of said magnets to the other
thereof and substantially parallel to said electrodes;
means for rotating said permanent magnets in a horizontal
plane; and
drive means for moving said first electrode in a vertical
direction between a process position at which said object is
located in said process chamber and within the horizontal
magnetic field and a transfer position which is below said
process position and at which said object is located on the
same level as said transfer port which is located at a level
lower than said two permanent magnets which sandwich the space
between said electrodes, so as to move said object into and
from said process chamber.
The references of record relied upon by the examiner are:
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