A container storage facility including a container storage rack with a plurality of container placement sections and an inert gas supply device includes a sensor group constituted by a plurality of oxygen concentration sensors arranged in a distributed manner around the container storage rack; a diffusion fan capable of blowing air to an intended point in the container storage rack; and a controller. The controller divides an area of the container storage rack into a plurality of monitoring areas, estimates respective oxygen concentrations in the monitoring areas based on respective detection values of the oxygen concentration sensors constituting the sensor group, and, in response to any of the monitoring areas being a low oxygen concentration area in which the estimated oxygen concentration is lower than or equal to a predetermined determination threshold, operates the diffusion fan in such a manner as to blow air to the low oxygen concentration area.

A process control method of a substrate processing apparatus includes monitoring a process status of each process chamber of a plurality of process chambers, determining a shift-to-idle process chamber to be shifted from a process state to an idle state among the plurality of process chambers, storing a first to-be-processed substrate in a storage, associated with the shift-to-idle process chamber, among a plurality of storages provided in a transfer chamber, and transferring the first to-be-processed substrate stored in the storage to the shift-to-idle process chamber in accordance with a shift to the idle state of the shift-to-idle process chamber.

A wafer storage system includes a main rail, an overhead hoist transport (OHT) on the main rail, the OHT being configured to transfer at least one storage case with wafers, an interface port on at least one side of the main rail, an auxiliary rail on one side of the interface port, the auxiliary rail being parallel to the main rail, and the interface port being between the main rail and the auxiliary rail, an auxiliary transport on the auxiliary rail, the auxiliary transport being configured to move along the auxiliary rail and to move the at least one storage case, a storage shelf on at least one side of the auxiliary transport, the storage shelf being configured to store the at least one storage case, and a worktable on one side of the storage shelf, the storage shelf being between the worktable and the auxiliary transport.

A transport system includes: a grid-patterned rail that has a plurality of first rails extending in a first direction and a plurality of second rails extending in a second direction different from the first direction and intersecting with the first rails and that forms a plurality of cells with the plurality of first rails and the plurality of second rails; an overhead transport vehicle that travels along the grid-patterned rail, a suspender that is suspended from the grid-patterned rail; and a frame surrounding one of the cells in a plan view and is provided below the suspender.

There is provided a technique capable of efficiently transporting a plurality of objects between a storage container configured to store the plurality of objects and a processing apparatus configured to collectively process the plurality of objects. A transport system 1 for transporting a plurality of objects between a storage container 9 configured to store the plurality of objects and a processing apparatus 2 configured to collectively process the plurality of objects held on a tray 8, includes: a mounting part 31 on which the storage container 9 is mounted; a stage 41 on which the plurality of objects are mounted; a tray support part 51 configured to support the tray 8; a first transport device 44 configured to transport the plurality of objects between the storage container 9 mounted on the mounting part 31 and the stage 41; and a second transport device 53 configured to transport the plurality of objects between the stage 41 and the tray 8 supported by the tray support part 51.

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.

Electronic device processing systems including an equipment front end module (EFEM) with at least one side storage pod are described. The side storage pod has a chamber including a storage container. The storage container includes at least a top substrate holder and a bottom substrate holder. In some embodiments, an exhaust port is located at a midpoint between the top substrate holder and the bottom substrate holder. A gas flow component is configured to provide a gas flow between the EFEM body and the storage container. A gas flow temperature component is configured to modify the temperature of the gas flow to a particular temperature.

A flatness measurement unit is a flatness measurement unit to be placed on a shelf for measuring flatness relating to the degree of deviation from a state in which four predetermined points on the shelf are present on the same plane. The flatness measurement unit includes: a body frame; and four contact sections dispersedly disposed on the body frame and provided so as to be in contact with the respective four predetermined points on the shelf. The four contact sections include two first contact sections not located diagonally and two second contact sections other than the first contact sections. The center of gravity of the flatness measurement unit is positioned in an area containing the two first contact sections, among four areas defined by two diagonal lines each passing through the corresponding first contact section and the corresponding second contact section that are located diagonally.

An equipment front end module (EFEM) having walls, a first wall including one or more load ports and an EFEM chamber formed between the walls. The EFEM further includes an upper plenum at a top of the EFEM and including an opening into the EFEM chamber. Ducts provide a return gas flow path enabling recirculation of gas from the EFEM chamber to the upper plenum, the ducts proximate the one or more load ports. The one or more ducts includes flow elements configured to cause a low pressure condition at a location of the one or more load ports.

A substrate processing apparatus includes: a carrier block including carrier placement parts and configured to load/unload a substrate into/from a carrier; a processing block provided on one side of the carrier block to process the substrate; first and second carrier placement parts of the carrier placement parts and provided side by side in a front-rear direction in a plan view; substrate placement parts provided to be arranged step by step vertically on one side of a substrate transfer region formed between the first and second carrier placement parts; a first substrate transfer mechanism provided in the substrate transfer region to deliver the substrate between the carrier of the first carrier placement part and a first substrate placement part of the substrate placement parts; and a second substrate transfer mechanism for moving upward and downward so as to deliver the substrate between first and second substrate placement parts.