Wafer cassette equipped with piezoelectric sensors
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsKuen-Ei Chen, Hung-Shan Lan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A wafer cassette for storing and transporting wafers that is equipped with sensors such as piezoelectric sensors or capacitance sensors on the surface of the dividers for sensing the presence or absence of wafers positioned on top of the dividers is described. The sensors are capable of detecting any defective placement of wafers such as a cross-slot placement or a double placement such that the condition can be corrected by a machine operator and a wafer cassette can be stopped before it is loaded into an internal buffer of a process machine.
Claims14
A wafer cassette equipped with piezoelectric sensors comprising:
- a cassette body having a top wall, a bottom wall, a rear wall and two sidewalls forming an open-front enclosure and defining a cavity therein,
- a left sidewall and a right sidewall each having a corrugated interior surface,
- a first plurality of ridge-shaped dividers forming said corrugated interior surface in said left sidewall each having a base portion integral with the sidewall and a tip portion extending outwardly from said sidewall toward said cavity in said body, said ridge-shaped dividers being oriented parallel to said bottom wall and perpendicular to said front opening defining slot-shaped receptacles therein between,
- a second plurality of ridge-shaped dividers forming said corrugated interior surface in said right sidewall each having a base portion integral with the sidewall and a tip portion extending outwardly from said sidewall toward said cavity in said body, said ridge-shaped dividers being oriented parallel to said bottom wall and perpendicular to said front opening defining slot-shaped receptacles therein between, and
- each of said first and second plurality of ridge-shaped dividers having a top surface and embedded in said top surface at least one piezoelectric sensor for sensing the presence or absence of a single water positioned on said top surface.
A container for holding substrates comprising:
- a cassette body having a top wall, a bottom wall, a rear wall and two sidewalls forming an open-front enclosure and defining a cavity therein,
- a left sidewall and a right sidewall each having a corrugated interior surface,
- a first plurality of ridge-shaped dividers forming said corrugated interior surface in said left sidewall each having a base portion integral with the sidewall and a tip portion extending outwardly from said sidewall toward said cavity in said body, said ridge-shaped dividers being oriented parallel to said bottom wall and perpendicular to said front opening defining slot-shaped receptacles therein between,
- a second plurality of ridge-shaped dividers forming said corrugated interior surface on said right sidewall each having a base portion integral with the sidewall and a tip portion extending outwardly from said sidewall into said cavity in said body, said ridge-shaped dividers being oriented parallel to said bottom wall and perpendicular to said front opening defining slot-shaped receptacles therein between, and
- each of said first and second plurality of ridge-shaped dividers having a top surface and embedded in said top surface at least one sensor for sensing the presence or absence of a single substrate positioned on said top surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.