SEMICONDUCTOR WAFER CASSETTE POSITIONING AND DETECTION MECHANISM

摘要

An apparatus for detecting the presence of wafer cassette, or, pod resting on an arrangement of pins allows cassette detection without interfering with insertion of a transport. A cassette resides on an arrangement of beveled pins (24) which mate with corresponding receptacles (28) on the underside. Pins supporting the cassette have a spring biased (26), hollow outer cylinder (20) coaxially mounted around a center post (22). A cassette places on the pins displaces the outer cylinder downward a sufficient distance to trigger a sensor. Upon removal of the cassette, the outer cylinder is displaced upwards, resetting the sensor.