An autonomous moving transfer robot, including a main body with a base and a vertical plate; a traveling mechanism having a driving wheel and a driven wheel mounted on the base; a working mechanism having two manipulators, each with a mechanical arm, a proximal end of which is connected to the vertical plate, and a clamp pivotally connected to a distal end of the mechanical arm; the mechanical arms enable the clamps to reach a desired position, and the manipulators drive the clamps to grip and release a target object; a carrying mechanism having a plurality of plate-shaped carrying members for carrying the target object, the carrying members being fixed on the same side of the vertical plate, and arranged at intervals along the vertical direction; and a control system for controlling the walking/stopping and steering of the traveling mechanism and the movement of the manipulators.

A mark printing device includes a driving unit driving along a driving rail of an overhead hoist transport, a printing unit being configured to print on the driving rail a mark for guiding a motion of a vehicle, a data processing unit receiving design data including design information of the driving rail and first information on a position and type of the mark from a server, an encoder unit being configured to calculate a rotation amount of a servo motor provided in the driving unit to detect a current position of the driving unit and a driving distance of the driving unit, and a control unit being configured to control the driving unit and the printing unit to print the mark on the driving rail by using the design data and second information on the current position and the driving distance of the driving unit.

A transport system includes a track, transport vehicles, an area controller, buffers, and a host controller. The area controller, when a number of the transport vehicles present within a control area is a predetermined number and when receiving a first transport command to convey an article from a transfer port to a transport destination outside the control area from the host controller, stores the first transport command and transmits a report that the first transport command is not able to be assigned to the transport vehicle to the host controller. The host controller, when receiving the report, when the buffer is present, transmits a command to delete the stored first transport command to the area controller, generates a second transport command to convey the article from the transfer port to the buffer, and transmits the second transport command to the area controller.

A transport vehicle system includes transport vehicles and a controller to allocate a transport instruction to the transport vehicles. The controller is configured or programmed to allocate a first transport instruction when the first transport instruction with a first priority occurs in a state in which a number of vacant transport vehicles is a first number, and to not allocate a second transport instruction to vacant transport vehicles when the second transport instruction with a second priority lower than the first priority occurs in a state in which the number of vacant transport vehicles is the first number.

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 part replacement system includes a part storage device configured to store an unused consumable part, and a replacement device that is connected to a processing device and the part storage device, the replacement device being configured to replace a used consumable part installed in the processing device with the unused consumable part stored in the part storage device. The replacement device is moved to a position of the processing device having the used consumable part that requires replacement, and the replacement device is connected to the processing device, and the part storage device is moved to a position of the replacement device connected to the processing device having the used consumable part that requires replacement, and the part storage device is connected to the replacement device.

A support member system is described for association with an overhead transport system. The support member system provides a safety feature to the overhead transport system by which the overhead transport system is able to avoid damage to wafers that are contained within a wafer cassette that is unintentionally released by the overhead transport system. The support member system is able to prevent such released cassettes from impacting the ground or tools located under the overhead transport system. The support member system targets wafer cassettes that have dimensions which are different than the dimensions of wafer cassettes for which the overhead transport system was originally designed to transport. Stocker systems for receiving, storing and delivering different types of wafer cassettes are also described.

Disclosed are semiconductor carrier storage systems, semiconductor fabrication systems including the same, and/or semiconductor fabrication methods using the same. The semiconductor carrier storage system comprises storage ports each of which accommodates a semiconductor carrier, a shuttle rail that extends in a horizontal direction on a side of the storage ports, an internal carrier shuttle that moves along the shuttle rail and transfers a semiconductor carrier to each of the storage ports, and an upper transport that receives the semiconductor carrier from an overhead hoist transport (OHT). The internal carrier shuttle includes a shuttle body coupled to the shuttle rail, a transfer wheel that connects the shuttle body to the shuttle rail, a gripper that holds the semiconductor carrier, and a hoist that vertically extends between the shuttle body and the gripper and drives the gripper to vertically move.

A transport system, including: a sensor, a controller and a power panel. The sensor determines a zone and sends a quantity information in response to a quantity of vehicles in the zone. The controller is arranged to send an output signal in accordance with the quantity information. The power panel is arranged to output a current in accordance with the output signal for driving vehicles in the zone, wherein the current is outputted to a cable extending through the zone.

The invention relates to a substrate handling and exposure arrangement comprising a plurality of lithography apparatus, a clamp preparation unit for clamping a wafer on a wafer support structure, a wafer track, wherein the clamp preparation unit is configured for accepting a wafer from the wafer track, and an additional wafer track for transferring the clamp towards the plurality of lithography apparatus.