Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Ming-Chien Wen

Ming-Tsong Wang

Yung-Dar Chen

Chia-Hung Chung

Po-Sung Kuo

Chi-Yun Tseng

Chuan-Yuan Lu

Su-Yi Doung

Dar-Rung Kuo

Hisen-Hwa Tseng

An exhaust system and a mini-exhaust static pressure controlling apparatus thereof for controlling a process area. The mini-exhaust static pressure controlling apparatus has an exhaust chamber and an auto release damping device. The exhaust chamber has an air inlet connected to the process area receiving air exhaust from the process area, and an air outlet venting the air exhaust. The auto release damping device has a diaphragm pre-stressed in an arc shape with a coefficient of elasticity and an adjusting device for applying a stress on the diaphragm to maintain the arc shape of the diaphragm, and is disposed on the exhaust chamber to control static pressure of the air exhaust in the exhaust chamber.

Exhaust system and mini-exhaust static pressure controlling apparatus thereof

A wafer cassette pod that is equipped with at least one position sensing device to avoid the accidental falling of a cassette pod door resulting in wafer breakage. The wafer cassette pod is provided with at least one position sensing device mounted in the sidewall of the cassette pod with a finger member protruding from the end surface of the sidewall forming the cassette pod opening. When the wafer cassette pod is not properly positioned, or docked on the loadport, the spring force of the position sensing device pushes the cassette pod away from the entrance of the loadport and thus, preventing the accidental falling of a cassette pod poor resulting in possible wafer breakage problems.

Wafer cassette pod equipped with position sensing device

An apparatus for transferring wafers by a robot blade and a method for using the apparatus are disclosed. In the apparatus, a robot blade that is equipped with distance sensors mounted in a bottom surface of the blade is provided which senses the distance between the bottom surface of the robot blade and an adjacent surface below the robot blade such that any possible scratching of the adjacent surface is eliminated. The adjacent surface below the robot blade may be a wafer surface in a wafer cassette, or a wafer pedestal surface in a process machine. The distance sensors are mounted in recesses in the bottom surface of the blade which may be suitably capacitance sensors, ultrasonic sensors or optical sensors. The distance sensed by the distance sensors is analyzed by a controller and compared to a predetermined value of a minimum allowable distance such that any danger of scratching the adjacent surface is eliminated.

Apparatus and method for transferring wafers by robot

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Hsinchu, Taiwan

Ming-Chien Wen