A cart for wafer transportation includes a cart body, a separator disposed between first and second wafer holders, an airtight lock configured to seal the cart body. A wafer transfer system includes a cart including a space for holding a wafer holder, a first workstation configured to load the wafer holder into the space and pressurize the space, and a second workstation configured to depressurize the space and unload the wafer holder from the space, wherein the cart is transportable between the first workstation and the second workstation. A method for transporting wafers includes docking a cart in a workstation; loading a wafer holder into a space of the cart; pressurizing the space to cause a pressure of the space to be greater than an atmospheric pressure; maintaining the pressure of the space at the pressure; and moving the cart carrying the wafer holder away from the workstation.

A front opening unified pod includes a container body, a removable front door, and an air curtain apparatus. The container body has bottom and top walls, two side walls, a rear wall connected to the bottom, top, and side walls to define a receiving space, and an opening opposite to the rear wall. The front door closes the opening. The air curtain apparatus includes an air outflow module and an air inflow pipeline connected to the air outflow module. The air outflow module is disposed on one of the top and side walls, is adjacent to the opening, and is located within the receiving space so as to form a laminar air curtain adjacent to the opening for shielding the receiving space.

A wafer storage container according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: a main body which includes an opening part at the front side thereof, and in which a wafer is accommodated; and an air current control part provided at one side of the main body, and the air current control part comprises a body the inside of which is empty; a compressed gas injection part provided at one side of the body and injecting a compressed gas into the body; and a compressed gas discharge part for discharging the compressed gas inside the body into the outside of the body, wherein the body extends by a predetermined length in a vertical or horizontal direction of the main body, and the main body includes a plurality of spray parts for spraying a purge gas into the inside thereof.

Electronic device processing assemblies including an EFEM with at least one side storage pod attached thereto. The side storage pod has a side storage pod container. A supply conduit extends between an upper plenum of the EFEM to the side storage pod container. A fan causes purge gas to simultaneously flow into the EFEM chamber and into the side storage pod container. The fan also causes recirculation of the purge gas from the EFEM chamber. Methods of operating EFEMs and EFEMs are also disclosed.

The inventive concept provides an apparatus and method for processing a substrate. The apparatus includes an index module and a processing module that is disposed adjacent to the index module and that processes the substrate. The index module includes one or more load ports, on each of which a carrier having the substrate received therein is placed, a side storage that stores the substrate subjected to a process in the processing module and removes fumes on the substrate, and a transfer frame including an index robot that transfers the substrate between the carrier placed on the load port, the side storage, and the processing module. The side storage includes a housing having an interior space, a partitioning unit that partitions the interior space into a plurality of receiving spaces independent of one another, and an exhaust unit that independently and separately evacuates the plurality of receiving spaces.

Disclosed is a substrate treating apparatus. The substrate treating apparatus includes an index unit including a load pot, in which a container is seated, and an index chamber connected to the load pot, and a process executing unit having a load lock chamber connected to the index chamber and a process chamber that treats a substrate transferred to the load lock chamber, the index unit further includes an alignment unit provided in the index chamber and that aligns a substrate type sensor transferred to the process chamber.

There is provided an exhaust nozzle unit capable of discharging a gas atmosphere in a substrate storage container having a loading/unloading opening from the container to an outside of the container through a port formed on a bottom surface of the container. The exhausted nozzle includes a nozzle capable of switching the port from a closed state to an open state by pressing a valve of the port; and a housing configured to hold the nozzle so as to be movable up and down between a use posture in which the port is in the open state and a standby posture in which the port is in the closed state.

A method of cleaning a nozzle of a gas supply system includes loading an apparatus including a carrier and an automated nozzle cleaning system in the carrier onto a load port containing a gas supply system. The automated nozzle cleaning system includes a first nozzle cleaning device, a second nozzle cleaning device and a monitoring device, and the carrier is positioned to enable a gas inlet of the carrier to be connected to a nozzle of the gas supply system. The method also includes vacuuming contaminant particles from the nozzle using the first nozzle cleaning device, mechanically removing the contaminant particles adhering to the nozzle off the nozzle using the second nozzle cleaning device, and measuring a level of the contaminant particles using the monitoring device.

Disclosed are implementations for efficient purging of substrate carriers (and content held therein) and preventing external contaminants from entering a gas purge apparatus by coupling the gas purge apparatus to a substrate carrier, performing a first gas purging session of an environment of the substrate carrier, receiving a first signal of a first signal type, responsive to receiving the first signal, keeping the gas purge apparatus coupled to the substrate carrier, performing a second gas purging session of the environment of the substrate carrier, receiving a second signal of a second signal type, and, responsive to receiving the second signal, decoupling the purge apparatus from the substrate carrier.

A side storage pod includes an outer enclosure having a sealing surface configured to couple to an EFEM and a side storage pod chamber having a body coupled to vertically-spaced storage members. Each of the vertically-spaced storage members is configured to support a corresponding substrate within the body. The side storage pod further includes a removable door. The removable door and the body are to seal relative to each other responsive to the removable door being in a closed position. A load-unload robot of the EFEM is to access the vertically-spaced storage members responsive to the removable door being in an open position. An environment within the side storage pod chamber is to be controlled to be one or more of: at first environmental conditions responsive to the removable door being in the closed position; or at second environmental conditions responsive to the removable door being in the open position.