WAFER TRANSFER EQUIPMENT FOR SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING

摘要

Wafer conveying equipment for manufacturing a semiconductor device is provided to use an upper arm and a lower arm of a robot arm in conveying a dummy wafer by making a same interval between dummy wafer slots formed on a dummy buffer as an interval between wafer slots formed on a load shuttle. A load shuttle(130) is formed in a main frame(110). A wafer(W) mounted on a sealing wafer cassette(125) is temporarily mounted on the load shuttle before being conveyed to a process chamber(200). A wafer slot(135) is formed in the load shuttle. The wafer slot is formed so that the wafer is capable to be mounted on the load shuttle. A dummy wafer(DW) conveyed to the load shuttle is mounted on a dummy buffer(140) when the number of the wafer mounted on the wafer slot is smaller than the number of the wafer slot. A dummy wafer slot(145) is formed in the dummy buffer so that the dummy wafer is capable to be mounted on the dummy buffer. The dummy wafer slot has a same interval between slots as an interval between slots of the wafer slot. A robot arm(70) conveys the wafer to the wafer slot from the sealing wafer cassette or conveys the dummy wafer to the wafer slot from the dummy wafer slot.