US 5,628,683 A · System for transferring substrates into clean rooms

Abstract

A system for transferring substrates in a clean room (100) has a box (1) for receiving a cassette (101) that contains the substrates (102), and a bottom (2) that hermetically closes the box (1) and that can be locked and unlocked in the box (1) by a locking mechanism. The locking mechanism has a captive C-washer (25) rotatively mounted in the box bottom (2). The captive C-washer (25) drives locking elements (21a, 21b; 321a, 321b), preferably by means of connecting rods (24a, 24b; 324a, 324b). The locking elements (21a, 21b; 321a, 321b) engage locking slots (11a, 11b) of the box (1). The captive C-washer (25) has catching bores (26a, 26b) engaged by the locking bolts (41a, 41b) of a rotary disk (45) arranged in a lock gate (4). A swivelling movement of the rotary disk (45) driven by a driving device of the system causes the bottom (2) to be locked and unlocked in the box (1). A reception frame (3) allows the box (1) to be accurately positioned and a blocking mechanism blocks the box (1) in the reception frame (3). The blocking mechanism is mechanically coupled to the rotary disk (45), so that when the bottom (2) is locked in the box (1) by a swivelling movement of the captive C-washer (25), the box (1) is unblocked in the frame (3), whereas when the bottom (2) is unlocked from the box (1) by a swivelling movement of the captive C-washer (45), the box (1) is blocked in the reception frame (3).

Claims26

Dependent claims

A system for transferring substrates into a clean room, comprising:

a box for receiving a cassette containing substrates, said box including a plurality of locking slots;
a box bottom which hermetically seals the box and which can be locked into and unlocked from said box;
a receiving frame for receiving said box adjacent said box bottom and orienting said box relative to the clean room;
a locking mechanism for locking said box bottom to said box, said locking mechanism including a pivot disk rotatably mounted in said box bottom, said pivot disk having a plurality of engagement bores, a plurality of push rods and an equal plurality of locking elements displaced by said pivot disk via respective ones of said push rods to engage a respective one of said locking slots;
a lock gate connected to said receiving frame, said lock gate having a turntable mounted therein, said turntable having a plurality of locking pins which engage respective ones of said engagement bores of said pivot disk thereby connecting said turntable to said pivot disk;
and
a detent mechanism for fixing in place said box in said receiving frame, wherein driving of said turntable by an operating device of the system causes pivotal movement of said turntable which triggers locking of said box bottom in said box causing termination of said fixing in place of said box in said receiving frame, and which triggers unlocking of said box bottom in said box causing fixing in place of said box in said receiving frame.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System for transferring substrates into clean rooms

Life of this patent

System for transferring substrates into clean rooms

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims26