Wafer conveying apparatus

A wafer conveying apparatus in which wafers are supplied to a wafer work suction-holding stage from a loader side magazine, and worked wafers are moved into an unloader side magazine, said apparatus comprising:

• a positional correction suction-holding stage for correcting positions of wafers, said positional correction suction-holding stage being disposed between said loader side magazine and said wafer work suction-holding stage and movable vertically and rotatably;
• a wafer carrying table with a flat upper surface disposed between said wafer work suction-holding stage and said unloader side magazine, the wafer carrying table having a space at a center thereof with regard to a wafer conveying direction;
• loader side and unloader side elevators which respectively raise and lower said loader side magazine and unloader side magazine;
• a conveyor device conveying wafers from inside of said loader side magazine to a point above said positional correction suction-holding stage;
• a pair of wafer position correcting pawls disposed so as to face each other in a direction perpendicular to said wafer conveying direction, said wafer position correcting pawls positioning said wafers by being moved back and forth while said wafers are raised slightly from said conveyor device by said positional correction suction-holding stage,
• a stopper means disposed between said positional correction suction-holding stage and said wafer work suction-holding stage so as to perform a positioning of said wafers;
• and
• a feeding pawl moving device for pushing a rear end of each of said wafers, said feeding pawl moving device being actuated:
• after said positional correction suction-holding stage has been moved vertically so that an upper surface of said positional correction suction-holding stage is positioned at substantially the same level as an upper surface of said stopper means, or
• after said wafer work suction-holding stage has been moved vertically so that an upper surface of said wafer work suction-holding stage is positioned at substantially the same level as upper surfaces of said stopper means and wafer carrying table.