Asq Boats, Inc.

Rockwell International Corporation

Steven N Lee

Jae Yoon Kim

A side lifting boat and a tool assembly is disclosed. The tool is detachably engageable to selectively lift a boat. Both boat and tool are anti-rotationally engageable by the tool's upper and lower projections at its forward end fitting into a correspondingly shaped space defined between the outer (non-wafer-carrying) surface on the side of the boat. The boat's corresponding space permits the lifting tool to be moved into the space and into position between two fulcrum points that stabilize the boat/tool assembly from anything other than a small relative angular rotation.

Side lifting tool wafer-boat assembly

A pair of opposed teeth combs hold a first plurality of waters at a first upper location. A lift platform on a machine engageably holds and lifts a second plurality into position to be interleaved into the spaces of the first wafer group. The combs are pivotably mounted such that a skewed water in the group of wafers on one platform comes into contact with a comb and causes the combs to pivot slightly upwardly, or a skewed wafer creates a separation-diminishing force on separated portions of a platform. Moveable suspensions floatably position corners of the separated platform parts relative to each other; and these platform parts react away from an error-initiated contact. Transmitter/receiver units are positioned in optical alignment and a skewed water or a piece of foreign matter causes any one of a plurality of light beams to be broken so that error corrective action is achieved.

Wafer interleaving with electro-optical safety features

Wafer supporting method and apparatus having at least two wafer supporting slots for each edge-wise oriented wafer in a plurality of coaxial edge-wise aligned wafers. The two wafer locations are essentially at the bottom and at an upper 'side' i.e., slightly below the widest diameter dimension of and edge-wise wafer with a pair of spaced apart upper slots having the same loose fitting cross-sectional shape as the lower slot. The supported wafer at the upper location touches the slot support at one slot wall only. A cross sectional shape of the slots for each wafer includes: (a) a rounded bottom wafer-supporting wall having a diameter that is essentially the same as the wafer's thickness; (b) an angle-controlling side wall; and (c) a third gravity feed wall that joins the tight fitting bottom to a wide loose fitting wafer entry slot opening. Close spacing between adjacent slots is provided by a pair of slot walls that are parallel to each other and are at the wafer lean angle.

Wafer boat

A side lifting wafer boat assembly is provided comprising a wafer supporting boat and boat lifting tool. The boat lifting tool is detachably engageable along the length of a boat. The tool is designed to permit sideway engagement with boats specifically designed for side lifting, or with boats that may also be end lifted, using a fork-like member which engages elongated pickup tubes.

Side lifting wafer boat assembly

An automated system lifts a batch of semiconductor wafers from a slotted carrier, transfers them laterally and lowers them into a second slotted carrier. In doing this, jaws on the lifting apparatus open automatically to receive or release the wafers. With a carrier having relatively high slotted sides, such as the commonly used plastic cassette, a pusher engages the lower edge of the wafers exposed through the bottom of the cassette and pushes them upwardly sufficiently far to permit the lifter jaws to receive and lift the wafers. The apparatus is oriented at a slight angle to insure that the wafers are all arranged in precise, spaced, parallel relation so as to cooperate with slots in the lifter jaws and slots in the receiving carrier. The system has the capability to move two batches of 25 wafers to a quartz boat having 50 more-closely spaced slots, and similarly, two batches from a quartz boat may be transferred to two different plastic cassettes.

Wafer transfer apparatus

A quartz boat is formed with a plurality of spaced, parallel rods having slots for supporting a series of semi-conductor wafers in a generally edgewise, spaced, parallel position. The slots continue to the ends of the rods, and the cross members supporting the rods are spaced inwardly from the rod ends, such that a series of boats may be arranged with the rods in end-to-end relation and the wafer space between adjacent boats is the same as the wafer space in the middle of a boat. The boat is also provided with a pair of tubes parallel to the rods for receiving a pickup fork.

Contiguous wafer boat

A method of making complementary n-channel and p-channel metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) device pairs in a common insulatively supported semiconductor layer, including simultaneously converting by exposure to an ion beam adjacently arranged complementary regions in different members of a device pair in said layer from a first to a second conductivity type.

Method of making CMOS devices

A boat for use in wafer processing technology such as associated with semiconductor wafers. The boat consists of a relatively flat bottom plate having a plurality of substantially parallel V-cut notches therein on which the bottom of the wafer rests and two parallel side rails disposed above and on either side of the flat bottom plate for holding the sides of the wafer. The two side rails includes a plurality of opposed U-shaped notches cut in parallel along the inner surface of the side rails for movably securing the opposite side edges of the wafer placed in the boat. Each pair of opposed U-shaped notches being offset with respect to a V-cut notch operatively associated therewith. Such boats are applicable to wafer handling areas including oxidation, diffusion, low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD), plasma etching, chemical etching, photoresist coating, baking, stripping, ultrasonic cleaning, and other automatic wafer handling operations. In addition to applicability to semiconductor processing technology, the boat is also applicable to other electronic processing technology such as the processing of magnetic bubble substrate materials.

Growing community of inventors

Irvine, CA, United States of America

Steven N Lee