Tokyo Electron Limited

Tokyo Electron Sagami Limited

Tel Sagami Limited

Tokyo Electron Tohoku Limited

Tokyo Electron Kabushiki Kaisha

Tokyo Electron Tohoku Kabushiki Kaisha

Katsumi Ishii

Kenichi Yamaga

Takanobu Asano

Kazunari Sakata

Hisashi Kikuchi

Shingo Watanabe

Takashi Tanahashi

Towl Ikeda

Yoji Iizuka

Yoshinori Mochizuki

Atsushi Wada

Masaharu Abe

Syuji Moriya

Mitsuo Katoh

Mitsuo Kato

Yasushi Sasaki

Masao Takikawa

A processing unit for a substrate has a vertical thermal processing furnace having a bottom and an opening provided at the bottom. A boat holding substrates W in vertical multistairs can be placed on a first lid , and the first lid can open and close the opening of the vertical thermal processing furnace with the boat placed thereon. The processing unit also has a boat-placing portion on which the boat and another boat can be placed and a boat conveying mechanism for conveying the two boats alternatively between the boat-placing portion and the first lid . A second lid hermetically closes the opening of the vertical thermal processing furnace when the first lid opens the opening but no boat passes through the opening . The processing unit can effectively reduce the undesirable influence from the opening when the first lid is taken off from the opening and the boat is conveyed out, and can also reduce the wasted energy by preventing the fall of the temperature in the interior of the thermal processing furnace

Processing unit for a substrate

A processing method for processing a substrate has a vertical thermal processing furnace,having a bottom and an opening,provided at the bottom. A boat,holding substrates W in vertical multistairs can be placed on a first lid,and the first lid,can open and close the opening,of the vertical thermal processing furnace,with the boat,placed thereon. The processing unit also has a boat-placing portion,on which the boat,and another boat,can be placed and a boat conveying mechanism,for conveying the two boats,alternatively between the boat-placing portion,and the first lid,A second lid,hermetically closes the opening,of the vertical thermal processing furnace,when the first lid,opens the opening,but no boat,passes through the opening,The processing unit can effectively reduce the undesirable influence from the opening,when the first lid,is taken off from the opening,and the boat,is conveyed out, and can also reduce the wasted energy by preventing the fall of the temperature in the interior of the thermal processing furnace

Processing method for substrate

A processing unit for a substrate has a vertical thermal processing furnace,having a bottom and an opening provided at the bottom. A boat holding substrates in vertical multistairs can be placed on a first lid, and the first lid can open and close the opening of the vertical thermal processing furnace with the boat placed thereon. The processing unit also has a boat-placing portion on which the boat and another boat can be placed and a boat conveying mechanism for conveying the two boats alternatively between the boat-placing portion and the first lid. A second lid hermetically closes the opening of the vertical thermal processing furnace when the first lid opens the opening but no boat passes through the opening. The processing unit can effectively reduce the undesirable influence from the opening when the first lid is taken off from the opening and the boat is conveyed out, and can also reduce the wasted energy by preventing the fall of the temperature in the interior of the thermal processing furnace.

Processing unit for substrate manufacture

A processing unit for a substrate comprises a partition,provided between an atmospheric area S,and an inert gas area S,The partition,has an opening,to communicate the atmospheric area S,and the inert gas area S,A door,is provided at the opening,to open and close it. Carrier holding device,is provided for holding a carrier,of the substrate in such a manner that the carrier,comes in contact with the opening,on the side of the atmospheric area. Inert gas replacing device,is provided for replacing a gas in the carrier,with an inert gas by introducing the inert gas into the carrier,when the door,closes the opening,and the carrier,comes in contact with the opening,on the side of the atmospheric area by the carrier holding device,This processing unit can perform the process of the substrate without increasing the concentration of the oxygen in the inert gas area S,by preventing leakage of the air from the atmospheric area S,into the inert gas area S

Processing method and processing unit for substrate

There is a gap between the respective inner regions of the end face of the cylindrical side wall and the abutting portion of the top plate, which are situated inside the seal member. Even though the top plate is bent inward by atmospheric pressure when the container is decompressed to a predetermined degree of vacuum, therefore, the abutting portion thereof cannot come into contact with the inner edge of the end face of the cylindrical side wall. Thus, if decompression and exposure to atmospheric pressure are repeated to bend the cylindrical side wall repeatedly, there is no possibility of the inner edge portion of the end face of the cylindrical side wall being separated or rubbed off to produce dust. Moreover, the cylindrical side wall and top plate are joined together in the region outside the seal member. If dust is produced by the contact between the cylindrical side wall and top plate at their junctions outside the seal member, therefore, it is prevented from entering the container by the seal member. Thus, a clean atmosphere in the container cannot be contaminated by the dust.

Decompression container

A plate-like object carrier device comprising plural arms arranged at a same pitch interval to horizontally support a wafer on each of the arms, a first motor for driving a single arm forward and backward and independently of a group of arms, a second motor for driving the group of arms forward and backward at the same time except the single arm, a power supply for supplying power to the first and second motors, and a controller for selecting whether to supply power only to the first motor or both of the first and second motors.

Device for transferring plate-like objects

A gap is defined between an inner region of an end face of a first container member of a container and an inner region of an abutting portion of a second container member, the inner regions being situated inside a seal member. The respective inner regions of the end face of the first container member and the abutting portion of the second container member, which are situated inside the seal member, are prevented from coming into contact with each other when the interior of the container is decompressed. Even though the second container member is bent inward by atmospheric pressure when the container is decompressed to a predetermined degree of vacuum, therefore, the abutting portion thereof cannot come into contact with the inner edge of the end face of the first container member. Thus, if decompression and exposure to atmospheric pressure are repeated to bend the container member repeatedly, there is no possibility of the inner edge portion of the end face of the first container member being separated or rubbed off to produce dust.

A container for storing a plurality of semiconductor wafers comprises two end walls and two side walls. The container has a main opening through which the wafers are inserted into or withdrawn from the container and a sub-opening through which a wafer counter approaches the wafers. A plurality of slots are formed in the container to hold the wafers one by one at intervals. Each slot includes a pair of grooves which are formed in inner surfaces of both the side walls, have a V-shaped cross-section, and which divergently open toward a central portion of the container. One surface of each groove serves as a supporting surface on which a wafer is disposed substantially horizontal when the container is positioned such that the reference plane is horizontal. The supporting surfaces of the pair of grooves have a pair of converging portions which converge toward the second opening. A filling body, having an inner surface which is brought into contact with an edge portion of a wafer, is provided in each converging portion near the sub-opening. The inner surface of the filling body is determined so as to restrict a position of the wafer, such that the wafer can be positioned at the same height of the supporting surfaces of the pair of grooves.

Wafer container and wafer aligning apparatus

A clean air apparatus includes a housing having an opening through which a carrier housing semiconductor wafers is supplied into the housing and an I/O port for supporting the carrier and a furnace for treating the wafer, provided in the upper portion of the housing. The carriers are at the same time supported by a first carrier stage provided in the upper portion of the housing and supported by a second carrier stage provided in the lower portion of the housing. The carrier or carriers are selectively moved between the I/O port and the first stage, between the I/O port and the second stage, and between the first stage and the second stage. A clean air is applied to the wafers in the carriers supported by the I/O port, the first stage and the second stage.

Clean air apparatus

A wafer boat has an upper projection, a lower projection, and a lower flange. A horizontal/vertical conversion handling apparatus for handling the wafer boat comprises a rotatable arm, and upper and lower hands provided at both ends of the arm. The arm is rotatable by at least 90.degree. in a vertical plane. The upper hand has boat contact portions for contact in horizontal and vertical modes, which are engaged with the upper projection on both sides thereof. The boat contact portions of the upper hand are vertically arranged such that the positions of the boat contact portions are reversed by the 180.degree. rotation of the upper hand. The lower hand has boat contact portions for contact in a horizontal mode, which are engaged with the lower projection on both sides thereof, and boat contact portions for contact in a vertical mode, which are engaged with the lower surface of the lower flange. The boat contact portions of the lower hand are vertically arranged, such that the positions of both the boat contact portions for contact in the horizontal mode and the boat contact portions for contact in the vertical mode are reversed by the 180.degree. rotation of the lower hand. The positions of the boat contact portions ar changed according to the steps to be performed, thereby preventing cross-contamination.

Arm apparatus for conveying semiconductor wafer and processing system

A vertical heating apparatus comprises a casing having an opening through which a plurality of transport members receiving articles to be processed are loaded in and unloaded from the casing, a heat treating furnace provided in an upper portion of the casing, a transport member storing portion provided in the casing at a side space of the heat treating furnace, for receiving the transport members, a processing member for transporting the articles to be processed in the heat treating furnace, a transferring mechanism for transferring the articles to be processed and received by the transport members to the processing member, and a vertically moving mechanism provided below the heat treating furnace in the casing, for loading and unloading the articles to be processed and received by the processing member in and from the heat treating furnace.

Vertical heat treating apparatus

A clean air apparatus comprises a body in which clean air is supplied, an I/O port having an opening for carrying a carrier housing objects to be treated in/out of the body, a door which opens/closes the opening, and dust preventing device for preventing dusts from entering the body from the outside through the opening, when the door is opened.

A wafer counter device comprising a system for aligning the orientation flats of plural wafers in a cassette with one another and a system provided with optical sensors for detecting whether or not the wafers are present in the cassette and serving to count the number of the wafers in the cassette on the basis of the result detected by the optical sensors. The wafers aligning system includes aligning rollers contacted with the rims of the wafers to rotate the wafers, a system for lifting the aligning rollers in such a way that the rollers can be contacted with the rims of the wafers, and a motor for rotating the aligning rollers.

Wafer counter having device for aligning wafers

A semiconductor processing apparatus comprises a main body having an air passage, a plurality of filter units connected in series with the air passage in the main body, each filter unit having an air intake port, an air otlet port and an air blower, the air intake port of each filter unit communicating with the air outlet ports of the filter units disposed upstream side of the air passage, and a mechanism for arranging articles to be processed close to the air outlet port of each filter unit such that air is supplied to the articles to be processed after the air has passed through the corresponding filter units.

Growing community of inventors

Fujino, Japan

Katsumi Ishii