A wafer transport carrier includes various components to provide improved air sealing to reduce air leakage into the wafer transport carrier. The wafer transport carrier may include a housing having a hollow shell that contains a vacuum or an inert gas to minimize and/or prevent humidity and oxygen ingress into the wafer transport carrier, a wafer rack that is integrated into the shell of the housing to minimize and/or prevent air leakage around the wafer rack, and/or an enhanced magnet-based door latch to provide air sealing around the full perimeter of the opening of the housing. These components and/or additional components described herein may reduce and/or prevent debris, moisture, and/or other types of contamination from the semiconductor fabrication facility from entering the wafer transport carrier and causing wafer defects and/or device failures.

The container main body includes a tubular wall portion having an opening circumferential portion provided at one end portion and the other end portion being closed, the opening circumferential portion having a container main body opening portion formed therein. The substrate storing space can store a substrate and communicates with the container main body opening portion. A central fixed member is provided to the wall portion of the container main body so as to be removably attached to the wall portion of the container main body. The central fixed member is configured to be locked and fixed to an alignment portion provided at a load port for conveying the substrate stored in the substrate storing space to a processing apparatus.

A substrate processing system includes a processing container body having an opening, a lid which closes an opening, a mover for relatively moving the lid with respect to the opening to open and close the opening, and a lock mechanism which locks the lid to the processing container body. The lock mechanism includes an arm member and a locking member. The arm member is provided on one of the processing container body and the lid and extends toward the other when the processing container body is located at a position where the lid is separated from the processing container body. The locking member restricts a displacement of the arm member by being engaged with a part of the arm member. This part is located beyond the gap space when the lid is at the separated position.

A substrate container including substrate supports, such as concentric rings, adapted to receive substrates in a substrate stack. The container includes a base and a top cover to enclose the substrate stack. A latching mechanism is adapted to latch the top cover to the base and secure the substrate stack within the container. The latching mechanism includes resilient corner flanges on an outside portion of the container, the flanges acting as springs to exert a biasing force on the cover and on the substrate stack. The flanges hold the stack within the container while accommodating stack-up uncertainty caused by the accumulation of uncertainties due to component machining tolerances. In some embodiments, a gap is created between a side wall of the top cover and the base of the container to assure compression of the substrate stack. Deflection limiters may be implemented to prevent over-deflection of the flanges.

A front opening wafer container has a container portion and a door sized to close an open front of the container portion. The container portion has shelves for holding wafers defining a seating position and has forward and rearward wafer supports to suspend wafers therebetween in a transport position above the seating position. Shock condition cushion portions are arranged adjacent the transport position for protecting the wafers during a shock condition. The wafers may be bonded wafers having a thinned wafer side and a carrier substrate side. Wafer engagement pads and finger members extend in opposing directions from a central strip on the door providing a balance wafer engagement. When closing the door, a primary wafer support portion engages the wafers first and a secondary elastomeric wafer support engages the wafer secondly. A V-groove for receiving the wafers in the wafer supports has a greater angle defined between the V-groove and the thinned wafer side than the angle defined between the V-groove and carrier substrate side providing enhanced protection for the bonded wafers.

This substrate storage container comprises: a lid body-side substrate support part which is capable of supporting an edge part of a substrate when the substrate storage container is closed; a depth-side substrate support part which is disposed so as to form a pair with the lid body-side substrate support part and is capable of supporting the edge part of the substrate; and a substrate edge part auxiliary part which is disposed at a portion opposing a substrate storage space when the substrate storage container is closed, and in which are formed a plurality of auxiliary grooves having an opening that is wider than the thickness of the edge part of the substrate so that the edge part of the substrate can be inserted therein. The auxiliary grooves each have opposing groove forming surfaces, and an edge part of one of a plurality of the substrates is inserted into each auxiliary groove when the container is closed. The edge part of the substrate is inserted into the auxiliary groove in a non-contact state in which a space is formed between the edge part of the substrate and the groove forming surfaces and the edge part of the substrate is not contacting the groove forming surfaces when the container is closed.

According to one embodiment, a substrate storage container comprises: a container body configured to store a substrate; a lid that closes a rectangular opening of the container body; and an annular gasket located between the container body and the lid. The container body has at least either one of a guide rib or a guide slit in an opening portion around the opening. The lid has at least either one of a guide slit or a guide rib that is engageable with the guide rib or the guide slit of the container body. The guide rib and the guide slit engage each other when the opening is closed with the lid and prevent the lid from tilting at a predetermined tilt angle or more with respect to an opening surface where the opening is formed.

Introduced here is a wafer separator configured to carry a semiconductor wafer with improved efficiency, protection, and reduced costs when utilized in the handling, transport, or storage of semiconductor components. The wafer separator may include a circular ring having an outer edge defining a periphery of the circular ring. The circular ring may include an inner edge defining a central opening of the circular ring. The wafer separator may include a first-right angled recess for receiving a semiconductor wafer that extends downward from a top surface of the circular ring. The wafer separator may also include a second right-angled recess for maintaining a gap beneath the semiconductor wafer when the semiconductor wafer is set within the first right-angled recess. In some embodiments, the wafer separator also includes interlock components for connecting the wafer separator to adjacent wafer separators.

A purge configurable wafer shipper. The container includes an enclosure portion with an open side or bottom, a door to sealing close the open side or bottom. One of the door and the container portion includes an opening formed in the enclosure to provide a fluid passageway from an interior of the wafer shipper to an exterior region. The opening may include a module receiving structure that defines the fluid passageway. A sealing member is included for insertion into the module receiving structure. The sealing member has a body portion including a support flange positioned proximate a lower portion of the body portion, a circumferential groove in the exterior surface of the body portion, and an O-ring positioned at least partially within the circumferential groove.

A reticle container for containing a reticle including a base plate having one or more windows. Each of the windows can include mounting recess having a recess sidewall including an undercut defined therein. A transparent substrate can be disposed in the mounting recess and is retained therein by a retention member having an arcuate portion extending between a first end portion and a second end portion. At least the first end portion of the retention member can be positioned in the undercut defined in the recess sidewall such that the arcuate portion of the retention member contacts the transparent substrate to retain the transparent substrate in the mounting recess.