A wafer storage device includes a wafer cassette and a carrier plate. The wafer cassette includes a housing and a plurality pairs of retaining members disposed on lateral walls of the housing. The carrier plate is placed into the housing, is supported by one pair of the retaining members, and includes a plate body carrying the wafer thereon, and having a periphery formed with two slots extending respectively in two different radial directions of the wafer. Two positioning members respectively and radially correspond in position to the slots, and abut against an outer rim of the wafer.

The present invention relates to a wafer storage container capable of removing fumes on a wafer or removing moisture therefrom by supplying purge gas to the wafer stored in a storage chamber. More particularly, the present invention relates to a wafer storage container capable of quickly blocking an injection hole and an exhaust hole and of preventing contaminants from flowing into a storage chamber upon the blocking of the exhaust hole.

A first lid opening-and-closing mechanism includes: a first holder that holds an upper lid of a first container; a first protrusion provided to protrude from the first holder toward one side direction with respect to the first holder and extends to outside of a casing; and a first raising/lowering driver that raises and lowers the first holder in a cantilevered manner with the first protrusion interposed therebetween. A second lid opening-and-closing mechanism includes: a second holder that holds an upper lid of a second container; a second protrusion provided to protrude from the second holder toward the one side direction and extends to the outside of the casing; and a second raising/lowering driver that raises and lowers the second holder in a cantilevered manner with the second protrusion interposed therebetween. The first raising/lowering driver and the second raising/lowering driver are located outside the casing in the one side direction.

Proposed is a POD cleaning process including: separating an introduced POD into an inner POD and an outer POD; cleaning a separation POD, which results from the separation, within a cleaning sub-chamber; drying the separation POD, which undergoes the cleaning, within a drying chamber; vacuum-processing the separation POD undergoing the drying; and assembling the inner POD and the outer POD that undergo the vacuum processing, in which the cleaning and the drying are separately performed.

There is provided a method for molding a substrate storing container 1 including a container main body molding step of molding a container main body 2 in a state where a direction P2 perpendicular to a plane P1 passing through the entire periphery of an end edge of an opening circumferential portion 28 of the container main body 2 is inclined in a direction forming a predetermined angle a2, with respect to a horizontal direction L1 which is a movement direction of the movable die M1 with respect to the fixed die M2, and a pullout step of pulling the container main body 2 molded in the mold space M0 out from the movable die M1 by moving the movable die M1 so as to retreat from the fixed die M2.

A substrate storage container includes a container main body having an opening at the front, a support portion for supporting a substrate in the interior thereof, and a substrate receiving portion positioned more toward a rear wall than the support portion, an a lid on which a substrate pressing portion for pressing the substrate is formed. The substrate receiving portion and the substrate pressing portion are present within a range of greater than or equal to 0 mm and less than or equal to 80 mm in the horizontal direction from a vertical center line that passes through the center of the container main body when the lid is viewed from the front.

A substrate storage container includes: a container body configured to store a substrate; a lid configured to close an opening formed on the front side of the container body; and a retainer arranged on the back of the lid and configured to restrict the substrate from moving to the front side. The retainer includes an integration of: a frame configured to be detachably attached to the back of the lid; a contact portion including a convex portion configured to contact the substrate and restrict the substrate from moving to the front side; and a beam structure that connects the frame and the contact portion. The contact portion and the beam structure are configured to be spaced apart from the lid.

A substrate storing container includes: a container main body; a lid body which is attachable to and detachable from a container main body opening portion, and which is able to block the container main body opening portion; and a component which is attached to the container main body or to the lid body. A connected part between the component and the container main body, the lid body or another component includes press-fit fixing portions, which are positioned by means of press fitting while being fixed to each other; and impulse welding portions which are formed by impulse welding, to maintain the positioning and fixing in the press-fit fixing portions.

A cassette hold down includes a frame, a first cassette contact extending in a vertical direction with respect to the frame, and a second cassette contact extending in the same vertical direction. The first and second cassette contacts are separated along a length direction of the frame. The cassette contacts can contact a wafer cassette on either side of a horizontal bar of the wafer cassette that interfaces with a channel provided on a door for a wafer container including the cassette and cassette hold down. The second cassette contact can be joined to the frame by a spring. Mounting features such as bosses can be included to connect the cassette hold down to the wafer container. Hard stops extending opposite the cassette contacts can be included to limit travel of the cassette contacts by mechanical interference with the wafer container.

A lid opening-and-closing device that opens and closes an upper lid of a container, the container including: a container body; the upper lid; a locking mechanism that locks the upper lid onto the container body when the upper lid is mounted on the container body; and a strip provided to the upper lid, the device including: a placement platform on which the container is placed; a guide provided on both sides above the placement platform and comes into contact with a lower face of the strip to rotate the strip upward to an extent exceeding the predetermined value with respect to the container body when the container is inserted in the horizontal direction to a specified position of the placement platform; and a raising/lowering mechanism that moves the container body and the upper lid for which locking by the locking mechanism has been released, relatively in an up-and-down direction.