Carrier system for silicon wafer

Abstract

There is disclosed a carrier system for carrying a silicon wafer or a cassette accommodating the wafers to arbitrary positions by loading an arm with them. This carrier system is arranged such that: a screw shaft is perpendicularly provided in a rotationally drivable manner between an upper plate and a bottom plate which are vertically connected through a plurality of guide bars to each other; a movable plate is so disposed as to be vertically movable by the rotation of the screw shaft and is guided by the guide bars in a vertically slidable manner between the upper plate and the bottom plate; a cylindrical member is perpendicularly so provided on the movable plate as to be rotationally drivable and penetrate the upper plate and protrude upwards therefrom; a horizontal movement member is fixed to an upper end of the cylindrical member; a carriage provided with the rotary arm is disposed in a horizontally movable manner on the horizontal movement member; a driving wire spanned between pulleys axially supported within the horizontal movement member is secured to the carriage; and the rotary arm including a wafer arm and a cassette arm which are disposed in positions orthogonal to each other is pivotally so supported on the carriage as to vertically rotate through approximately 90.degree.. In this constitution, the carrier system suffices for taking the silicon wafers in and out of the cassette and carrying the cassette itself.