ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 29 -- United States Patent no. 12,211,735, issued on Jan. 28, was assigned to Canon Anelva Corp. (Kawasaki, Japan).
"Load lock device" was invented by Jun Miura (Hachioji, Japan), Naoya Fukuda (Chofu, Japan), Shinji Takagi (Tama, Japan) and Hidetoshi Shimokawa (Fuchu, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A load lock device includes a load lock chamber, and a substrate holding structure configured to hold a substrate in the load lock chamber, wherein the substrate holding structure includes a facing surface facing the substrate, and is configured to allow a gas to flow through a space between the substrate and the facing surface, and in a state in which the substrate is h...