US 2012/0067770 A1Published application

Cassette adapter, adapter main body locking apparatus and seating sensor mechanism

AssigneeSinfonia Technology Co., Ltd.

InventorsTakaichi Hatano, Shogo Saito

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Abstract

A cassette adapter which makes it possible for a second cassette which accommodates a circular wafer of a diameter of 200 mm to be used on a load port ready for a first cassette which accommodates a different circular wafer of another diameter of 300 mm is locked to the load port by an adapter main body locking apparatus. The locking apparatus includes a locking air cylinder serving as a locking member for locking the first cassette to a carrier base of the load port, and a locking target member provided integrally on a rear face of an adapter plate of the cassette adapter for disengageably engaging with a locking pawl at an end of a rod of the air cylinder. A seating sensor mechanism detects that the second cassette is seated at a correct position on the adapter plate.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A cassette adapter adapted to be mounted on a load port that receives a first cassette to accommodate a first wafer of a first size therein, the cassette adapter comprising:

an adapter base configured to be secured to the load port;
and
an adapter body pivotally supported on the adapter base and configured to pivot around a pivot axis between a first position and a second position,
the adapter body including:
a first adapter plate on which a second cassette that accommodates a second wafer of a second size is placed when the adapter body is at the first position where the second wafer is approximately vertically positioned in the second cassette;
and
a second adapter plate on which the second cassette is placed when the adapter body is at the second position where the second wafer is substantially horizontally positioned in the second cassette.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.