Systems and methods for tray cassette warehousing

A system, comprising:

• a semiconductor processing unit;
• a plurality of trays, wherein each of the plurality of trays having a first barcode and is configured to contain at least one semiconductor die or is an empty tray containing no semiconductor dies;
• a plurality of tray cassettes, wherein each of the plurality of tray cassettes is configured to contain at least one of the plurality of trays or is an empty tray cassette containing no trays;
• a plurality of tray cassette containers having rotating holding pins, a handle, and a housing structure, wherein each of the plurality of tray cassette containers having a second barcode is configured to contain at least one of the plurality of tray cassettes or is an empty tray cassette container containing no tray cassettes;
• and
• a warehouse apparatus, wherein the warehouse apparatus comprises a storage zone including at least one input port and at least one output port, and an exchange zone including at least one load/unload port, wherein the warehouse apparatus is configured to:
• receive a first tray cassette container of the plurality of tray cassette containers from an external source at the at least one input port;
• separate at least one of the plurality of tray cassettes contained within the first tray cassette container;
• transport each of the separated tray cassettes individually from the at least one input port along a first direction, then a second direction to the exchange zone;
• combine individual tray cassettes to be contained within an empty tray cassette container;
• transport each of the separated tray cassettes individually to the at least one load/unload port along the first direction;
• separate each of the trays contained within each of the separated tray cassettes;
• transport each of the separated trays individually along a third direction to the semiconductor processing unit via a tray feeder conveyor, wherein the tray feeder conveyor is connected to the at least one load/unload port.

A method, comprising:

• receiving a first tray cassette container of a plurality of tray cassette containers having rotating holding pins, a handle, and a housing structure from an automatic material handling system (AMHS) vehicle at an input port of a warehouse apparatus,
• wherein each of the plurality of tray cassette containers is configured to contain at least one of a plurality of tray cassettes or is an empty tray cassette container containing no tray cassettes,
• wherein each of the plurality of tray cassettes is configured to contain at least one of a plurality of trays or is an empty tray cassette containing no trays,
• wherein each of the plurality of trays having a first barcode is configured to contain at least one semiconductor die or is an empty tray containing no semiconductor dies;
• storing the first tray cassette container in a storage zone of the warehouse apparatus;
• separating the at least one of the plurality of tray cassettes contained within the first tray cassette container;
• transporting each of the separated tray cassettes individually from at least one input port of the warehouse apparatus along a first direction, then a second direction to an exchange zone of the warehouse apparatus;
• combining individual tray cassettes to be contained within an empty tray cassette container;
• transporting each of the separated tray cassettes individually to the load/unload port of the exchange zone along the first direction;
• separating each of the trays contained within each of the separated tray cassettes;
• and
• transporting each of the separated trays individually along a third direction to a semiconductor processing unit via a tray feeder conveyor, wherein the tray feeder conveyor is connected to the load/unload port.