Entegris, Inc.

Eric S Olson

Russ V Raschke

Jason T Steffens

John Burns

Mark Vincent Smith

Michael Shawn Adams

Barry Lee Gregerson

Eric A Kirkland

Christian Andersen

Ryan Mushel

Karen Anderson

Apparatuses and methods providing a ballast system for adjusting the center of gravity of a standardized front opening wafer container. Various embodiments of the disclosure present ballast systems that are low profile, do not require modifications to the shell of the wafer container, and can be retrofit to existing wafer carriers. In some embodiments, these capabilities are accomplished by a ballast that mounts to a kinematic coupling plate of the wafer container. In one embodiment, the ballasting can also provide sufficient counter force to the lifting forces associated with purging of the wafer container, thereby preventing 'lift off' of the wafer container during purging operations. The ballasts can be removed for shipping of the wafer container, thereby decreasing shipping costs.

Front opening wafer container with weight ballast

Wafer carrier ring

Substrate shipper component

Growing community of inventors

Shorewood, MN, United States of America

Eric S Olson