A conveyor system is configured to transport the electronic substrates through cleaning modules of a cleaning apparatus. The conveyor system includes a first outer frame member, a second outer frame member, a bottom belt assembly disposed between the first outer frame member and the second outer frame member, and a top belt assembly spaced from the bottom belt assembly. The bottom belt assembly and the top belt assembly are configured to an electronic substrate therebetween to transport the electronic substrate along the conveyor system and through the at least one cleaning module. The bottom belt assembly or the top belt assembly includes a mesh material belt fabricated from heat resistant synthetic fibers. The conveyor system further includes a plurality of pins secured to the bottom belt assembly or the top belt assembly to create at least one lane along a length of the conveyor system.

An article transport facility includes a first rail and a second rail. The second rail is spaced upward relative to the first rail, and intersects the first rail in a view in an up-down direction. The transport vehicle includes a vehicle body disposed between the first rail and the second rail in the up-down direction, a first traveling unit that causes the vehicle body to travel along a first direction, and a second traveling unit that causes the vehicle body to travel along a second direction.

A wafer inspection system is provided. The wafer inspection system includes: a transfer region in which a transfer device is arranged; an inspection region in which test heads for inspecting a substrate are arranged; and a maintenance region in which the test heads are maintained. The inspection region is located between the transfer region and the maintenance region, a plurality of inspection rooms accommodating the test heads are adjacent to each other in the inspection region, and the test heads are configured to be unloaded from the inspection region to the maintenance region.

A gripper device includes a holding portion that is attached to an elevating section capable of lifting and lowering above a transfer section to hold an article, a first positioning section that is attached to the elevating section and that positions the holding portion in a horizontal direction with respect to the article by contacting the article at two first contact positions in an upper portion of the article, and a second positioning section that is attached to the elevating section and that positions the holding portion in a height direction with respect to the article by contacting the article at three second contact positions that are not located on a straight line in the upper portion of the article.

The present application discloses a material handling system and a monitoring system and a monitoring method for particles in a traveling area of overhead hoist transfers, wherein the monitoring system for particles in the overhead hoist transfer traveling area comprises gas sampling modules, a particle counter and a monitoring device. The gas sampling module is configured to obtain the gas to be tested around traveling wheels of each overhead hoist transfer (OHT). The particle counter is configured to test the gas to be tested for the size and number of particles in the gas to be tested. The monitoring device is electrically connected to the particle counter, and is configured to acquire the size and number of the particles tested and alarm when determining that the content of particles does not meet a preset standard.

A substrate processing apparatus including a frame, a first SCARA arm connected to the frame, including an end effector, configured to extend and retract along a first radial axis; a second SCARA arm connected to the frame, including an end effector, configured to extend and retract along a second radial axis, the SCARA arms having a common shoulder axis of rotation; and a drive section coupled to the SCARA arms is configured to independently extend each SCARA arm along a respective radial axis and rotate each SCARA arm about the common shoulder axis of rotation where the first radial axis is angled relative to the second radial axis and the end effector of a respective arm is aligned with a respective radial axis, wherein each end effector is configured to hold at least one substrate and the end effectors are located on a common transfer plane.

A method and apparatus for loading substrates in an inspection station is disclosed herein. In one embodiment a loading module is disclosed that includes a loading station for two or more substrate cassettes, a first lane comprising a first conveyor that is substantially aligned with one of the two or more substrate cassettes and a conveyor system, a second lane comprising a second conveyor that is substantially aligned with another of the two or more substrate cassettes and positioned in a spaced-apart relation relative to the first lane, and a lateral transfer module positioned between the first lane and the second lane that is adapted to move substrates from the second lane to the first lane.

A method of hydrogenation of a silicon photovoltaic junction device is provided, the silicon photovoltaic junction device comprising p-type silicon semiconductor material and n-type silicon semiconductor material forming at least one p-n junction. The method comprises: i) ensuring that any silicon surface phosphorus diffused layers through which hydrogen must diffuse have peak doping concentrations of 1×10.sup.20 atoms/cm.sup.3 or less and silicon surface boron diffused layers through which hydrogen must diffuse have peak doping concentrations of 1×10.sup.19 atoms/cm.sup.3 or less; ii) Providing one or more hydrogen sources accessible by each surface of the device; and iii) Heating the device, or a local region of the device to at least 40° C. while simultaneously illuminating at least some and/or advantageously all of the device with at least one light source whereby the cumulative power of all the incident photons with sufficient energy to generate electron hole pairs within the silicon (in other words photons with energy levels above the bandgap of silicon of 1.12 eV) is at least 20 mW/cm.sup.2.

A method and a device for stringing together objects in transport systems, preferably in coating systems, for adjusting the distance between two objects, preferably substrates or substrate holders, being arranged one behind the other, wherein the front object moves at a process speed v.sub.p in the transport system and the rear object is at an undefined distance from the front object. The method comprises the following steps: (a) accelerating the rear substrate to an initial speed v.sub.x>v.sub.p; (b) detecting an increase in the driving torque when the rear substrate moves against the front substrate; (c) delaying the rear substrate by a predetermined value in order to establish a predetermined distance a.sub.p from the front substrate; and (d) adjusting the speed of the rear substrate to the process speed v.sub.p.

A transport apparatus comprising a housing, a variable reluctance drive mounted to the housing, and at least one transport arm connected to the variable reluctance drive where the drive includes at least one rotor having salient poles of magnetic permeable material and disposed in an isolated environment, at least one stator having salient pole structures each defining a salient pole with corresponding coil units coiled around the respective salient pole structure and disposed outside the isolated environment where the at least one salient pole of the at least one stator and the at least one salient pole of the rotor form a closed magnetic flux circuit between the at least one rotor and the at least one stator, at least one seal partition configured to isolate the isolated environment; and at least one sensor including a magnetic sensor member connected to the housing, at least one sensor track connected to the at least one rotor, where the at least one seal partition is disposed between and separates the magnetic sensor member and the at least one sensor track so that the at least one sensor track is disposed in the isolated environment and the magnetic sensor member is disposed outside the isolated environment.