A wafer manipulator for Si-molecular beam epitaxy totally based on magnetic bearings

Low defect processing is a generally accepted goal to meet the performance and yield demands of future integrated circuit devices. This goal includes virtually complete elimination of any contamination. Therefore the requirement for tools and functional components is to avoid any sliding friction as an essential source of the troublesome effects. On the basis of electro-permanent magnetic bearing techniques a contactless and consequently frictionless manipulator has been developed and applied to a wafer manipulator for Si molecular beam epitaxy.