Disclosed are implementations for efficient purging of substrate carriers (and content held therein) and preventing external contaminants from entering a gas purge apparatus by coupling the gas purge apparatus to a substrate carrier, performing a first gas purging session of an environment of the substrate carrier, receiving a first signal of a first signal type, responsive to receiving the first signal, keeping the gas purge apparatus coupled to the substrate carrier, performing a second gas purging session of the environment of the substrate carrier, receiving a second signal of a second signal type, and, responsive to receiving the second signal, decoupling the purge apparatus from the substrate carrier.

A method includes transferring a wafer into a first process chamber of a cluster tool; performing a first process to the wafer in the first process chamber; transferring the wafer from the first process chamber to a second process chamber of the cluster tool after performing the first process; cleaning the first process chamber; performing a second process to the wafer in the second process chamber during cleaning the first process chamber.

A tray engine includes a vertical drive column, a rotation mechanism for rotating the vertical drive column, and an end effector attached to the vertical drive column. The end effector includes an end effector base attached to the vertical drive column. The end effector further includes a slide attached to the end effector base to support a tray, when present. The slide enables the tray to slide along a length of the end effector base. The tray engine includes a drive mechanism attached to the end effector base for moving along the length of the end effector base to enable the tray, when present, to slide linearly along the length and load or unload the tray to or from the slide.

A load port adapted for wafer cassettes of different sizes detects storage states of wafers stored in the wafer cassettes. The load port includes a body, a positioning mechanism, a sensing mechanism, and a detecting mechanism. The body has a carrier base. The positioning mechanism is disposed on the body and has a positioning unit disposed on the carrier base, a hooking unit, and a limiting unit. The hooking unit is disposed in the body and has a driving assembly and a hooking element. The driving assembly is disposed in the body. The hooking element is mounted to the driving assembly. The sensing mechanism is disposed on the carrier base. The detecting mechanism is disposed on the body, detects the storage states of wafers stored in the wafer cassette, and has a first detecting assembly and a second detecting assembly spaced apart from each other.

A carrier door opener includes one or more connector devices configured to interface with a door of a substrate carrier located at a load port. The carrier door opener further includes an outer surface forming a groove and a load port seal seated in the groove. The load port seal is configured to seal against a first portion of a planar surface of a panel of the load port around a panel opening formed by the panel. A second portion of the planar surface of the panel is configured to seal to a factory interface.

In some embodiments, a side storage pod of an equipment front end module is provided that includes (1) an outer enclosure having a sealing surface configured to couple to the equipment front end module; (2) a side storage pod chamber having a body with a plurality of vertically-spaced storage members each configured to support a substrate; and (3) an indexer operable to vertically move the side storage pod chamber so that different subgroups of storage members are accessible by a load-unload robot in the equipment front end module. In other embodiments, a heated side storage pod is provided enabling degassing of substrates stored therein. Methods for processing substrates are described, as are numerous other aspects.

A load port of a factory interface of an electronic device manufacturing system can include a purge apparats, a docking tray configured to receive a substrate carrier including a substrate carrier door and a substrate carrier housing, a backplane located adjacent to the docking tray, and a carrier door configured to seal an opening in the backplane when the carrier door opener is closed. The carrier door opener can include an inlet gas line therethrough that is coupled to one or more components of the purge apparatus. The load port can also include a controller that is configured to detect that the substrate carrier is placed in a docking position on the docking tray. The substrate carrier placed in the docking position on the docking tray can form a gap between the substrate carrier housing and the backplane. The controller can also purge a space between the carrier door and the carrier housing and/or an area between the carrier door and the carrier door opener via the inlet gas line and the gap between the substrate carrier housing and the backplane. The controller can cause the purge apparatus to stop the purge and close the gap between the substrate carrier housing and the backplane.

An apparatus for handling wafer carriers in a semiconductor fabrication facility (FAB) is disclosed. In one example, the apparatus includes: a table configured to receive a wafer carrier having a first door and operable to hold a plurality of wafers; an opening mechanism configured to open the first door of the wafer carrier; and a door storage space configured to store the first door. The apparatus may be either located on a floor of the FAB or physically coupled to a ceiling of the FAB.

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 multiple transport carrier docking device may be capable of storing and/or staging a plurality of transport carriers in a chamber of the multiple transport carrier docking device, and may be capable of forming an air-tight seal around a transport carrier in the chamber. Semiconductor wafers in the transport carrier may be accessed by a wafer transport tool while the air-tight seal around the transport carrier prevents and/or reduces the likelihood that contaminants in the semiconductor fabrication facility will reach the semiconductor wafers. The air-tight seal around the transport carrier may reduce defects of the semiconductor wafers that might otherwise be caused by the contaminants, may increase manufacturing yield and quality in the semiconductor fabrication facility, and/or may permit the continued reduction in device and/or feature sizes of integrated circuits and/or semiconductor devices that are to be formed on semiconductor wafers.