A stocker includes a transporter that travels through a traveling space SP within a stocker and transports an article, a pair of rails that flank the traveling space extend in parallel or substantially in parallel in a horizontal direction, platforms movable along the pair of rails, and a housing provided on a stocker outer side of a door that separates an inside and an outside of the stocker, and that houses the platforms. The pair of rails extend from the inside of the stocker to the housing through an opening directly under the door. At least one of the platforms includes a fence in an upright standing manner and an upper end of the fence is higher than an upper end of the opening. The platform that includes the fence extends across the inside of the stocker and the outside of the stocker via the opening while the fence is arranged on a stocker inner side.

The present invention provides various aspects for processing multiple types of substrates within cleanspace fabricators or for processing multiple or single types of substrates in multiple types of cleanspace environments. In some embodiments, a collocated composite cleanspace fabricator may be capable of processing semiconductor devices into integrated circuits and then performing assembly operations to result in product in packaged form. Customized smart devices, smart phones and touchscreen devices may be fabricated in examples of a cleanspace fabricator. In some examples, the smart devices, smart phones and touchscreen devices may have two touchscreens on opposite sides of the device along with hardware based encryption.

In an embodiment, a system, includes: a first pressurized load port interfaced with a workstation body; a second pressurized load port interfaced with the workstation body; the workstation body maintained at a set pressure level, wherein the workstation body comprises an internal material handling system configured to move a semiconductor workpiece within the workstation body between the first and second pressurized load ports at the set pressure level; a first modular tool interfaced with the first pressurized load port, wherein the first modular tool is configured to process the semiconductor workpiece; and a second modular tool interfaced with the second pressurized load port, wherein the second modular tool is configured to inspect the semiconductor workpiece processed by the first modular tool.

An electronic component handler includes an electronic component transporter transporting an electronic component in an arrangement state where a shuttle plate is arranged, the shuttle plate having a recess receiving the electronic component, a light source casting light, a light receiver receiving the light, a detector detecting presence/absence of the electronic component in the recess, and a negative pressure generator putting the recess under a negative pressure. The shuttle plate has a first flow path. The electronic component transporter has: a shuttle plate fastener having a second flow path communicated with the first flow path in the arrangement state and having the shuttle plate fixed thereto in the arrangement state, a transmission member sealing the second flow path and transmitting the light, and a driver driving the shuttle plate fastener. The negative pressure generator is coupled to the second flow path and sucks the electronic component in the recess.

An article transport facility includes article transport vehicles that travel along a specified travelable path, and a control device that controls the article transport vehicles. The travelable path includes nodes and links each connecting a pair of the nodes. The control device sets a setting path based on a link cost that is set for each of the links. The link cost includes a reference cost and a variable cost. The reference cost is a value that is set based on a reference passage time that is required for a target vehicle to pass through a target link in a state in which another vehicle is not present in the target link. The variable cost is a value that is set based on a vehicle count-related increased time by which an actual passage time is increased relative to the reference passage time according to the number of the other vehicles present in the target link, the actual passage time being a time required for the target vehicle to pass through the target link.

This method is for conveying, in a processing system comprising at least one processing unit that performs a desired process on substrates and a conveyance unit that conveys the substrates to the processing unit, a plurality of substrates, which are to be continuously processed, from the conveyance unit to the processing unit. To each of the substrates, an adjustment value for optionally changing processing time is assigned in advance. The method comprises: a step for acquiring an adjustment value allocated to a first substrate to be processed this time; a step for acquiring a reference adjustment value allocated to a reference substrate processed before the first substrate; a step for acquiring an actual time which is an actual time of processing performed on the reference substrate; a step for calculating a predictive processing time for the first substrate by reflecting, on the actual time, a difference between the adjustment value allocated to the first substrate and the reference adjustment time; and a step for adjusting, on the basis of the calculated predictive processing time, a conveyance timing of a second substrate to be processed after the first substrate.

The invention relates to a system for manufacturing a plurality of integrated circuits, IC, mounted on a common support, the system comprising: an input station configured (adapted, arranged) to receive at least one common support; an output station configured (adapted, arranged) to receive at least one common support having a plurality of integrated circuits formed thereon; a plurality of processing modules each module being operable (configured, arranged, adapted) to perform at least one of the processing steps (e.g. deposition, patterning, etching) for forming an integrated circuit on the common support; a transfer means operable (configured, arranged, adapted) to transfer the at least one common support from the input station to the output station and to one or more of the processing modules therebetween; control means (e.g. a control system, or at least one controller, control unit, or control module) operable to direct the at least one common support from the input station to the output station through one or more of the plurality of processing modules according to at least one processing protocol comprising a selected one of a plurality of changeable pre-programmed protocols; the control means being operable to direct the movement of a common support from the input station to the output station and through one or more of the processing modules independently of any other common support. The invention also relates to a method for manufacturing a plurality of integrated circuits, IC, mounted on a common support.

A temporary storage system includes a travel rail having first rails and second rails, the first rails and the second rails being disposed in a grid pattern on a same plane and disposed to surround a transfer port for receiving an article in a two-dimensional view; a vehicle having a travel part and a transfer part including an elevator; and storages each configured to store the article, in which the travel rail is disposed such that the vehicle is accessible to a stop position where the transfer part is disposed immediately above the transfer port from a side with the storage for the transfer port and the vehicle is accessible to another stop position where the transfer part is disposed immediately above the storage.

A transport system includes first and second intrabay overhead tracks, first and second interbay overhead tracks, first and second storages, first and second delivery ports, first and second cranes including first and second runners that run along the first and second intrabay overhead tracks, respectively, first and second masts, and first and second transferors, and an overhead transport vehicle including a runner that runs along the first and second intrabay overhead tracks, a holder, a lifting driver, and a lateral extender.

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.