According to one embodiment, there is provided a substrate storage apparatus including a storage unit and an exhaust unit. The storage unit includes a plurality of plates. The exhaust unit includes an exhaust passage and a wall portion. The exhaust passage communicates with an exhaust port. The wall portion intervenes between the storage unit and the exhaust passage. The wall portion includes a plurality of slit holes. The plurality of plates protrude inward from a cabinet in the storage unit. Plates among the plurality of plates are capable of mounting a substrate. The plurality of plates are arrayed in a vertical direction. The plurality of slit holes are arrayed in the vertical direction to correspond to the plurality of plates. Each of the plurality of slit holes extends in a horizontal direction and penetrates the wall portion.

A wafer pod transfer assembly is provided. The wafer pod transfer assembly includes a wafer pod port to receive a wafer pod, a transfer axle coupled to the wafer pod port, a shaft receiver, a shaft coupled to the transfer axle and to the shaft receiver, a pin through the shaft receiver and through the shaft, wherein the pin comprises a first end and a second end, opposite the first end, and a pin buckle including a first loop and a second loop. The pin buckle is coupled to the pin, the first loop encircles the first end of the pin, and the second loop encircles the second end of the pin.

A wafer stocker is capable of further improving an environment around wafers. The wafer stocker includes a housing, a loading device provided on a front surface of the housing, a wafer cassette shelf arranged in the housing, a wafer transfer robot configured to move the wafers from a transfer container mounted on the loading device to a wafer cassette in the wafer cassette shelf, a wafer cassette delivery device configured to move the wafer cassette in the wafer cassette shelf to a stage having a different height, and a fan filter unit configured to generate a laminar flow in a wafer transfer space and in a wafer cassette transfer space.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to forming multi-depth films for the fabrication of optical devices. One embodiment includes disposing a base layer of a device material on a surface of a substrate. One or more mandrels of the device material are disposed on the base layer. The disposing the one or more mandrels includes positioning a mask over of the base layer. The device material is deposited with the mask positioned over the base layer to form an optical device having the base layer with a base layer depth and the one or more mandrels having a first mandrel depth and a second mandrel depth.

A system includes an equipment front end module chamber, alignment pedestals housed within the equipment front end module chamber, and a load/unload robot at least partially housed within the equipment front end module chamber. The alignment pedestals include a first alignment pedestal having a first support surface and a second alignment pedestal having a second support surface, and the first support surface has a vertical offset and an overlap region having at least a partial overlap relative to the second support surface. The load/unload robot includes an arm, and vertically arranged blades attached to the arm. The vertically arranged blades include an upper blade configured to transfer a first substrate to the first alignment pedestal and a lower blade configured to transfer a second substrate to the second alignment pedestal.

Particles in an accommodation chamber are also easily discharged while facilitating replacement of an atmosphere in the accommodation chamber with an inert gas. An EFEM includes a load port 4, a housing configured to define, in the housing, a transfer chamber closed by connecting the load port 4 to an opening provided in a partition wall, a supply pipe for supplying nitrogen to a transfer chamber, and a discharge pipe 49 for discharging a gas in the transfer chamber. The load port 4 includes an opening/closing mechanism 54 capable of opening and closing a lid 101 of a mounted FOUP 100, and an accommodation chamber 60 kept in communication with the transfer chamber via a slit 51b and configured to accommodate a part of the opening/closing mechanism 54. The discharge pipe 49 is connected to the accommodation chamber 60 to discharge the gas in the transfer chamber via the accommodation chamber 60.

Semiconductor processing apparatuses and methods are provided in which an electrostatic discharge (ESD) prevention layer is utilized to prevent or reduce ESD events from occurring between a semiconductor wafer and one or more components of the apparatuses. In some embodiments, a semiconductor processing apparatus includes a wafer handling structure that is configured to support a semiconductor wafer during processing of the semiconductor wafer. The apparatus further includes an ESD prevention layer on the wafer handling structure. The ESD prevention layer includes a first material and a second material, and the second material has an electrical conductivity that is greater than an electrical conductivity of the first material.

A robot 100 includes a base 1 having side portions, an arm 3 rotatably coupled to the base 1, and a hand 8 coupled to the arm 3. A joint between the arm 3 and the base 1 is closest to a first side portion 11a in a plan view. The base 1 houses control components. A second side portion 11b is provided with a maintenance area 12 on which a maintenance component such as a first board 24 is disposed. The maintenance area 12 is used for maintenance of the maintenance component.

This disclosure provides a wafer processing method having the following steps: providing a wafer (10), an immersion device (100), a carrier (200), and a spray device (300); turning the wafer (10) from a horizontal manner to an upright manner; upright placing the wafer (10) into the immersion device (100) for immersion; taking the wafer (10) out from the immersion device (100) and placing that onto the carrier (200) horizontally; spraying a liquid on the wafer (10) by the spray device (300); rinsing the wafer (10); rotating the carrier (200) to dry the wafer (10). Multiple steps for processing the wafer (10) may be performed on the same carrier (200) to accelerate the process.

Various examples include a system and network to map of substrates within a substrate carrier (e.g., such as silicon wafers within a wafer cassette), and a classification of a state of each substrate, as well as the carrier in which the substrates are placed. In various examples provided herein, an image acquisition system, such as a camera, acquires multiple images of the substrates within the carrier. The image or images are then processed with a deep-convolutional neural-network to classify a state of the substrate relative to a substrate slot including empty slots, occupied slots (e.g., properly loaded slots), double-loaded slots, cross-slotted, and protruded (where a substrate is not fully loaded into a slot).