Semiconductor wafer transportation
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsWen-Yao Hsieh, Wen-Kai Hsieh, Si-Heng Liu, Lin Hung Kai, Shao-Hao Chiu
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Abstract
A wafer transportation pod includes a body, a main compartment enclosed by the body, the main compartment to provide a controlled environment, a holding device within the main compartment, the holding device to hold a plurality of semiconductor wafers, a top latching mechanism configured to connect to another pod or a carrier mechanism of an overhead hoist transfer (OHT) system, a bottom latching mechanism configured to connect to another pod, the bottom latching mechanism being similar to the latching mechanism on the carrier.
Claims20
A wafer transportation pod comprising:
- a body;
- a main compartment enclosed by the body, the main compartment configured to provide a controlled environment;
- a holding device within the main compartment, the holding device to hold a plurality of semiconductor wafers;
- a top latching mechanism configured to selectively connect to another pod or a carrier mechanism of an overhead hoist transfer (OHT) system;
- a bottom latching mechanism configured to selectively connect to a top latching mechanism of another pod by rotation of the body of the wafer transportation pod with respect to the other pod.
A semiconductor wafer pod transportation system comprising:
- a carrier mechanism comprising a carrier latch to connect to a top latch of a first semiconductor wafer transportation pod, the first semiconductor wafer pod comprising:
- a body;
- a main compartment enclosed by the body, the main compartment to provide a controlled environment;
- a holding device within the main compartment, the holding device to hold a plurality of semiconductor wafers;
- and
- a bottom latch that is configured to attach to a top latch of a second semiconductor wafer transportation pod by rotation of the body of the first semiconductor wafer pod with respect to the second semiconductor wafer transportation pod.
A system comprising:
- a carrier mechanism comprising a carrier latch to connect to a top latch of a first semiconductor wafer transportation pod, the first semiconductor wafer pod comprising:
- a body;
- a main compartment enclosed by the body, the main compartment to provide a controlled environment;
- a holding device within the main compartment, the holding device to hold a plurality of semiconductor wafers;
- and
- a bottom latch;
- and
- a control system comprising a processor and a memory, the memory comprising machine readable instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the control system to:
- cause the carrier mechanism to latch onto a top latch of the first semiconductor wafer transportation pod;
- and
- cause the carrier mechanism to move the first semiconductor wafer transportation pod such that the bottom latch of the first semiconductor wafer transportation pod latches to a top latch of a second semiconductor wafer transportation pod;
- wherein the control system is further configured to cause the carrier mechanism to move the first semiconductor wafer pod while the second semiconductor wafer transportation pod is secured to a loading mechanism, thereby unlatching the first semiconductor wafer transportation pod from the second semiconductor wafer transportation pod.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.