SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING APPARATUS

PURPOSE:To obtain a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus with which very few foreign substances adhere to a wafer surface, which is a surface to be processed, and transfer with a high through-put is facilitated by a method wherein the wafer is transferred vertically by a pushing-up mechanism and a vertical type electrode is provided and two grooves are provided in the wafer pushing-up mechanism. CONSTITUTION:After a wafer 13, which is held by a clamp 6 and mounted on a sample electrode 4, is processed, the wafer 13 is transferred from a position B to a position C by a clamp shifting mechanism 7. Then, when a wafer pushing-up mechanism 12 pushes up a new wafer 11 in a cassette 9 by holding it in a groove (a) and ascends to the position of the electrode and stops, an opening and closing mechanism 8 operates to open the clamp 6 and the processed wafer 13 is held by a groove (b). When the opened clamp 6 advances from the position C to a position D again, the opening and closing mechanism 8 operates to close the clamp 6 to hold the new wafer 11 and the pushing-up mechanism 12 descends and the processed wafer 13 is stored in the cassette 9. Then the shifting mechanism 7 retreats to mount the wafer 11 on the electrode 4.