A method includes aligning and positioning a carrier in a predetermined orientation and location within a first front opening pod (FOUP) of a cluster tool, transferring the carrier to a charging station of the cluster tool, transferring a substrate from a second front opening pod (FOUP) of the cluster tool to the charging station and chucking the substrate onto the carrier, transferring the carrier having the substrate thereon from the charging station to a factory interface of the cluster tool, aligning the carrier having the substrate thereon in the factory interface of the cluster tool such that during substrate processing within a processing platform of the cluster tool the carrier is properly oriented and positioned relative to components of the processing platform, where the processing platform comprises one or more processing chambers, transferring the aligned carrier having the substrate thereon from the factory interface to the processing platform of the cluster tool for substrate processing, and transferring the aligned carrier having the processed substrate thereon from the processing platform to the factory interface.

A method for bonding a first substrate and a second substrate includes: forming a protrusion at a partial region of the first substrate; measuring a position of the first substrate after the protrusion is formed in the first substrate; and bonding the first substrate and the second substrate by contacting the protrusion of the first substrate with a surface of the second substrate to form a contact region and enlarging the contact region.

A method for preventing a collision in a wafer processing system is provided. The method includes aligning a first sensor and a second sensor. The first sensor is disposed on a predetermined position of an elevating member connected to a bottom of a vertical wafer boat of the wafer processing system, and the second sensor is disposed on a shutter of a chamber of the wafer processing system. The method further includes activating the first sensor and the second sensor to monitor a path alongside the vertical wafer boat when the chamber is closed by the shutter.

A wafer bonding apparatus includes a lower stage having a first surface and holding a first wafer on the first surface, an upper stage having a second surface and holding a second wafer on the second surface, an upper push rod passing through a center hole of the upper stage to press a middle region of the second wafer, and a plurality of first heating circuits provided at the second surface of the upper stage to heat the second wafer held by the upper stage. Each of the plurality of first heating circuits is independently controlled such that the second wafer is heated to have different temperature distributions along a circumferential direction about a center of the second wafer.

A workpiece referencing system and method, the system having a workpiece support assembly for supporting a plurality of workpieces, wherein the support assembly includes a support platform and a plurality of support members which are disposed to the support platform, each support member being configured to support an individual workpiece; and a workpiece referencing assembly for referencing the workpieces, as supported by the support assembly, to predetermined positions; wherein the support members each includes a body which includes a support surface which supports a workpiece and a resilient coupling which resiliently couples at least an upper part of the body relative to the support platform, such that the at least part of the body is displaceable relative to the support platform from a first, unbiased position to a second, biased reference position by operation of the referencing assembly, and, when released, the at least part of the body returns to the first, unbiased position.

A method of aligning two wafers during a bonding process includes aligning a first wafer having a plurality of alignment markings with a second wafer having a plurality of alignment markings. The method further includes placing a plurality of flags between the first wafer and the second wafer. The method further includes detecting movement of the plurality of flags with respect to the first wafer and the second wafer using at least one sensor. The method further includes determining whether the wafers remain aligned within an alignment tolerance based on the detected movement of the plurality of flags relative to the first wafer and the second wafer.

A wafer support system has a wafer support device and a dicing frame, wherein the wafer support device has a bottom plate and a top plate. The top plate has a support surface for supporting the wafer, and the bottom plate has a maximum diameter being larger than the maximum diameter of the top plate so that the bottom plate forms a repository for the dicing frame. The dicing frame has a plate-like shape defining a center hole, wherein the minimum diameter of the center hole is larger than the maximum diameter of the top plate so that the dicing frame sinks below the upper surface of the wafer and/or the support surface. Further, a wafer support device, a wafer support system and a mask aligner are provided.

A method includes receiving a wafer, measuring a surface topography of the wafer; calculating a topographical variation based on the surface topography measurement performing a single-zone alignment compensation when the topographical variation is less than a predetermined value or performing a multi-zone alignment compensation when the topographical variation is greater than the predetermined value; and performing a wafer alignment according to the single-zone alignment compensation or the multi-zone alignment compensation.

A method includes aligning and positioning a carrier in a predetermined orientation and location within a first front opening pod (FOUP) of a cluster tool, transferring the carrier to a charging station of the cluster tool, transferring a substrate from a second front opening pod (FOUP) of the cluster tool to the charging station and chucking the substrate onto the carrier, transferring the carrier having the substrate thereon from the charging station to a factory interface of the cluster tool, aligning the carrier having the substrate thereon in the factory interface of the cluster tool such that during substrate processing within a processing platform of the cluster tool the carrier is properly oriented and positioned relative to components of the processing platform, where the processing platform comprises one or more processing chambers, transferring the aligned carrier having the substrate thereon from the factory interface to the processing platform of the cluster tool for substrate processing, and transferring the aligned carrier having the processed substrate thereon from the processing platform to the factory interface.

An optical measurement device and method are disclosed. A position measurement device is provided with a device for measuring inclinations of an optical detection module (5) and a substrate carrier (6) which are measured during movement of the optical detection unit and the substrate carrier. Calculation and correction can be made according to the inclination data and with reference to displacements of the optical detection module (5) and the substrate carrier (6) and coordinates of their positions. During measurement for a certain point on the substrate, measured data related to the point is corrected by using the device and the method, which improves measurement precision, thus eliminating a large error caused in measurement for a large-sized substrate (9).