The present invention relates to a cross rail structure for an OHT system and an OHT system using the same.

According to the present invention, there is provided a cross rail structure for an OHT system, that is a point at which two orthogonal rails among rails that are installed in an OHT system and transport vehicles intersect with each other. The cross rail structure includes a pair of auxiliary rails that are installed at substantially the same height as the rail at the point at which the rails intersect with each other, and disposed parallel to each other at a predetermined distance; a movement unit that moves the auxiliary rails up and down; a rotation unit that rotates the auxiliary rail so that the auxiliary rails are disposed in any one of two directions orthogonal to each other; and a distance holding unit that holds a distance between the pair of auxiliary rails without an interference with the vehicle.

A substrate treating apparatus includes a transporting space, transport mechanisms, and heat-treating sections. The transport mechanisms are provided in the transporting space. The heat-treating section, transporting space, and heat-treating section are aligned in the stated order in a transverse direction. One heat-treating section includes a plurality of heat-treating units. The heat-treating units are arranged in a longitudinal direction. The other heat-treating section includes a plurality of heat-treating units. These heat-treating units are also arranged in the longitudinal direction. One transport mechanism transports substrates to the heat-treating units. The other transport mechanism also transports substrates to the heat-treating units.

A storage system prevents a large load from being applied to a part of the ceiling. The storage system in which a rack is provided by being suspended from a first position of a ceiling by a first suspending member attached to a grid ceiling, a second overhead track is provided by being suspended from a second position of the grid ceiling by a second suspending member attached to the grid ceiling, and the first position and the second position are set to be apart by at least a predetermined distance.

Some implementations described herein provide a method that includes loading, from a load port and into a first buffer of a multiple-buffer overhead hoist transport (OHT) vehicle, a first transport carrier storing one or more processed wafers. The method includes unloading to the load port, while the first buffer retains the first transport carrier, and from a second buffer of the multiple-buffer OHT vehicle, a second transport carrier storing one or more wafers for processing. In other implementations, the method includes loading, into a first buffer of the multiple-buffer OHT vehicle, a first transport carrier storing one or more wafers for processing, while a semiconductor processing tool, associated with a load port, is processing one or more wafers associated with a second transport carrier. The method includes positioning the multiple-buffer OHT vehicle above the load port while the multiple-buffer OHT vehicle retains the first transport carrier in the first buffer.

A substrate treating apparatus and a substrate transporting method wherein a platform is disposed on a first ID block, and a platform is placed on a second ID block. A currently-used carrier platform is provided only on the first ID block. Accordingly, a substrate is transported in both a forward path and a return path between the first ID block and a second treating block. The substrate is returned not to the first ID block but to the second ID block disposed between the two treating blocks in the return path.

A transport vehicle system includes a transport vehicle having a first travel unit configured to travel on a track and a transfer unit configured to move in a horizontal direction with respect to the first travel unit to transfer an article and a buffer vehicle having a second travel unit configure to travel on the track on which the transport vehicle travels and an article placement unit provided to be movable integrally with the second travel unit and to be able to deliver the article with the transfer unit of the transport vehicle.

An overhead transport system includes an overhead transport vehicle including a conveyor and a body, and a controller. The conveyor includes wheels to travel on rails including straight rails and intersection rails alternately arranged with a gap in each of a first direction and a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. The controller is configured or programmed to execute steering control to steer the wheels in a state in which each of the wheels is positioned on one of the intersection rails different from one another. A steering center of the wheel under the steering control is on the intersection rail and inward of the body from a ground contact point of the wheel on the intersection rail.

A substrate treating apparatus and a substrate transporting method wherein a platform is disposed on a first ID block, and a platform is placed on a second ID block. A currently-used carrier platform is provided only on the first ID block. Accordingly, a substrate is transported in both a forward path and a return path between the first ID block and a second treating block. The substrate is returned not to the first ID block but to the second ID block disposed between the two treating blocks in the return path.

A conveyance vehicle includes a traveling driver, a main body, an up-and-down stage including a gripper to hold an article and capable of moving up and down with respect to the main body, an up-and-down driver to cause the up-and-down stage to move up and down by drawing out and winding up of belts, a lateral mover to cause the up-and-down driver while being cantilevered to protrude laterally of the main body, and an adjuster. In accordance with a laterally moved amount of the up-and-down driver by the lateral mover and a lowered amount of the up-and-down stage by the up-and-down driver, the adjuster performs one or both of adjustment of the laterally moved amount and adjustment of an orientation of a sensor included in the up-and-down driver to deliver the article to the transfer destination and to receive the article from the transfer destination.

An overhead traveling vehicle and an overhead traveling vehicle fault processing system are provided. The overhead traveling vehicle includes: an overhead traveling vehicle main body; a main walking part, installed on the overhead traveling vehicle main body and configured to drive the overhead traveling vehicle main body to walk on tracks; an auxiliary walking part, installed on the overhead traveling vehicle main body and configured to drive the overhead traveling vehicle main body to walk on the tracks; and a control part, configured to control one of the main walking part and the auxiliary walking part to be on the tracks and to control the other one of the main walking part and the auxiliary walking part to leave the tracks.