Semiconductor manufacturing equipment includes a substrate supply unit to which a front opening unified pod (FOUP) is detachably coupled and accommodates a first substrate therein, a process chamber in which a process is performed on a second substrate, a stage provided between the process chamber and the substrate supply unit, the stage including a cooler configured to cool a third substrate and a transfer robot configured to transfer the substrates, and a control unit configured to control the transfer robot by comparing first time data with second time data, the first time data being an amount of time taken for the transfer robot to transfer the third substrate from the cooler to the substrate supply unit, and the second time data being an amount of time remaining before completion of the process performed in the process chamber.

A closed gas circulation system may include a sealed plenum, circulation fans, and a fan filter unit (FFU) inlet to contain, filter, condition, and re-circulate a gas through a chamber of an interface tool. The gas provided to the chamber is maintained in a conditioned environment in the closed gas circulation system as opposed to introducing external air into the chamber through the FFU inlet. This enables precise control over the relative humidity and oxygen concentration of the gas used in the chamber, which reduces the oxidation of semiconductor wafers that are transferred through the chamber. The closed gas circulation system may also include an air-flow rectifier, a return vent, and one or more vacuum pumps to form a downflow of collimated gas in the chamber and to automatically control the feed-forward pressure and flow of gas through the chamber and the sealed plenum.

A transfer device includes: a cassette table; a support unit; a transfer unit; and a control unit as defined herein, the cassette includes a pair of side walls and a support portion as defined herein, and the control unit includes a storage unit configured to store correlation information indicating a correlation as defined herein, and a controller configured to control, based on the correlation information, the direction of the object to be transferred by at least one of the support unit or the transfer unit when the object to be transferred is loaded from the support unit into the cassette such that the amount of deflection of the object to be transferred decreases.