Tokyo Electron Sagami Limited

Tokyo Electron Limited

Tel Sagami Limited

Tokyo Electron Kabushiki Kaisha

Nichias Corporation

Toyo Tanso Co., Ltd.

Tokyo Electron Tohoku Kabushiki Kaisha

Tokyo Electron Tohoku Limited

Takanobu Asano

Kenichi Yamaga

Hiroyuki Iwai

Katsumi Ishii

Hiroyuki Yamamoto

Ken Nakao

Katsutoshi Ishii

Takashi Tanahashi

Kazutoshi Miura

Hironobu Nishi

George Hoshi

Tamotsu Tanifuji

Masaharu Abe

Ryoichi Okura

Hitoshi Kato

Hisashi Kikuchi

Tsuneyuki Okabe

Tetsuro Tojo

Katsuhiro Yamashita

Noboru Sato

Susumu Tanaka

Wataru Ohkase

Jiro Hiraiwa

Hirofumi Kitayama

Kazunari Sakata

Osamu Yoshimoto

Yuji Ono

Syuji Moriya

Hiroshi Hayakawa

Yoshinori Mochizuki

Masashi Fumoto

Kazutoshi Sawado

Shinichi Wada

Shozo Ito

Yuuji Ono

Fluorine gas generators are connected with semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses through a gas supplying system including a storage tank that can store a predetermined quantity of fluorine gas generated in the on-site fluorine gas generators. When one or more of the on-site fluorine gas generators are stopped, fluorine gas is supplied to the semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses from the storage tank storing a predetermined quantity of fluorine gas, so as to keep the operations of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses. Thereby obtained is a semiconductor manufacturing plant in which fluorine gas generated in the fluorine gas generators can be safely and stably supplied to the semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses, and with superior cost performance.

Semiconductor manufacturing plant

Two rotorseach housing a honeycomb structurecarrying an absorbent is driven for rotation by a common motor. Partitioning membersdefine an absorbing zone S and a recovery zone U in the rotor depending on the angular positional relationship between the partitioning membersand the rotor corresponding thereto. In the absorbing zone S, the absorbent removes moisture and organic matters from air passing therethrough. In the recovery zone U, recovery of the absorbent deteriorated by absorbing the moisture and the organic matters is preformed by using heated dry air. Air sucked from a transfer spaceof the processing system sequentially passes through the absorbing zones of both the rotors via a circulation passage, thereafter returned to the transfer space. A part of clean dry air having passed through the absorbing zones of both the rotors is supplied into an exhaust passage, and is heated by a heater, and passes through the recovery zones of both the rotors.

Dry air-supplying apparatus and treating apparatus

The present invention relates generally to a heat treatment system and method for heat-treating an object to be treated. Particularly, the invention relates to a heat treatment system wherein an object to be treated is carried in a reaction vessel, which has been pressure-reduced to a predetermined degree of vacuum and the interior of which is heated to a predetermined process temperature, and a process gas is supplied into the reaction vessel via a gas feed passage to process the object.

Heat treatment system and method

A treatment apparatus comprises a treatment chamber for performing a treatment for a workpiece W, a loading chamber connected to the treatment chamber, for loading and unloading a holding member which contains the workpiece into and from the treatment chamber, and an input/output chamber for inputting and outputting the workpiece to and from the loading chamber. The input/output chamber includes a cassette accommodating vessel port which holds a cassette accommodating vessel. The vessel is filled with clean air or an inert gas, and is airtightly closed. A cassette receiving mechanism is disposed below the port and lowers only the cassette of the vessel so as to receive the cassette. Thus, when the cassette is input and output to and from the outside of the treatment apparatus, the workpiece contained within the cassette is not exposed to the atmosphere in a working region. Consequently, it is not necessary to improve the cleanliness level of the atmosphere in the working region. As a result, the construction cost of the clean room and the operation cost thereof can be reduced. A clean air blowing device is disposed below the port. The clean air blowing device blows a side flow of clean air. Thus, the atmosphere at a position below the port where air tends to stay is circulated. Thus, since the surface of the workpiece loaded in the treatment chamber is exposed to the side flow, particles and the like that adhere thereto are purged.

Treatment apparatus

According to this invention, there is provided a notch position aligning mechanism and a process for using the mechanism including a base which can be vertically movably inserted into a cassette through a lower opening of the cassette for storing a plurality of targets to be aligned having notches formed in edge portions of the targets wherein can be fitted, a rotating/supporting mechanism, including a first rotary member which is arranged on the base, and has a plurality of fitting grooves in which the notches of the targets can be fitted, a second rotary member which can be rotated and is arranged on the base, and a drive unit for rotating at least one of the first and second rotary members, the rotating/supporting mechanism supporting and rotating the targets using the first and second rotary members while the targets are spaced apart from the cassette, and a support member, arranged on the base, for supporting the targets having the notches fitted in the fitting grooves of the first rotary member to stop rotations of the targets.

Notch position aligning apparatus and process for using the apparatus to

A plate-like member conveying apparatus includes five holding arms arranged parallel to each other in one direction and capable of supporting wafers, a link mechanism for connecting said holding arms to each other and for, when at least one holding arm is moved in the one direction, moving the remaining holding arms such that the pitch thereamong is equal, and a nut-screw driving mechanism for moving the at least one holding arm in the one direction.

Plate-like member conveying 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 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 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 wafer transferring method for transferring wafers between a cassette and a boat having grooves to hold the wafers, comprises the steps of providing an identification mechanism for positional alignment on the boat in advance, detecting the identification mechanism, and aligning the boat to a predetermined position based on a detection result and transferring the wafers from the cassette to the boat. A wafer transferring apparatus comprises a loading device for extracting wafers from a cassette and transferring the wafers onto a boat, a detection device for detecting an identification section provided on the boat in order to identify a wafer transferring position on the boat, a control device for acquiring the wafer transferring position on the boat based on a detection result attained from the detection device and controlling a mutual position between the boat and the cassette to come to a predetermined position.

Semiconductor wafer transferring apparatus and boat for thermal

A wafer transfer device which includes a lifter system for lifting wafers seated in a cassette, a chuck system having at least two pairs of chuck members on each of which a plurality of grooves for holding the wafers therein are formed and serving to hold the wafers, which are lifted by the lifter system, between these chuck members, and a carrier system for carrying the wafers together with the chuck system. The wafer holding grooves on one of the paired chuck members are in series with those on one of the other paired chuck members, and the wafer holding grooves on one of the paired chuck members are parallel to those on one of the other paired chuck members.

Wafers transfer device

A vertical heat-treatment apparatus is provided with a mechanism for automatically transferring semiconductor wafers from carriers to a boat for a vertical type furnace. The automatic transferring mechanism comprises a port for receiving a plurality of carriers arranged in series in an upright state, a posture change mechanism for changing the posture of wafers in the carriers from the upright state to the horizontal state, a parallel transfer mechanism for transferring the carriers on the boat to the posture change mechanism, a carrier loading/unloading mechanism for loading the carriers on a station, a wafer loading/unloading mechanism for taking out the wafers from the carriers on the station in turn and transferring the taken-out wafers to the boat in turn, and a mounting mechanism for mounting the boat in the furnace. The carrier loading/unloading mechanism and the wafer loading/unloading mechanism are mounted on a common frame and are rotated and lifted at the same time.

Vertical heat-treatment apparatus having a wafer transfer mechanism

A wafer boats supporting wafers is loaded into and unloaded from a reaction tube with a lid therebelow in a vertical heat treatment apparatus, while holding the wafer boat vertical with respect to the lid. An arm is provided in a space below the reaction tube, for transferring wafer boats along a path, while holding the wafer boats vertical and in a substantially horizontal plane. Three stations are formed in the path. At the first station, unprocessed wafers are mounted on a first wafer boat located, while wafers mounted on a first wafer boat is being heat-treated in said reaction tube. Then, the first wafer boat is transferred from the first station to the third station, and is held at the third station. While the first wafer boat is held at the third station, the second wafer boat is lowered to the second station to unload the second wafer boat from the reaction tube, and then is transferred to the first station. Thereafter, the heat-treated wafers are removed from the second wafer boat located at the first station. Next, the first wafer boat is transferred from the third station to the second station, while the second wafer boat is located at the first station, and then is mounted onto the lid, thereby to load the first wafer boat into the reaction tube.

Method of loading and unloading wafer boat

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Yokohama, Japan

Takanobu Asano