Zusammenbau-/Ausbau-Einrichtung für abdichtbaren unter Druck stehenden Transportbehälter

摘要

The purpose of the automatic container assembler apparatus (800) is to assemble the constitutive elements of a COAST container i.e. the wafer (138) that is to be treated in the manufacturing line, the cassette-reservoir (123) and the single wafer holder (130). In essence, the assembler apparatus consists of a cabinet whose interior space cabinet is submitted to a clean filtered gas flow generated by a blower, so that a clean gaseous mini-environment is created therein with a light overpressure with regard to the outside ambient. The cabinet includes a vertical stocker (804) adapted to be manually and safely filled with the adequate number of the elements mentioned above. Generally, the wafers are carried in a multiple wafer holder (130'). These elements are introduced in the cabinet through an input loadlock device (810) and laid down onto a table (806) by an operator. Next, the operator places them in their respective bins (815) of the stocker through manipulation gloves (805). The cabinet is provided with an automatic manipulator mechanism (807) for automatically and successively grasping one element of each type before proceeding to their complete assembly in a load loadlock device (808). The manipulator mechanism essentially consists of a rotating head (822) movable in the X, Y and Z directions and provided with a plurality of handling grippers (822A to C), each being adapted to a specific element. Once these elements have been properly assembled to form a container, the interior space thereof is pressurized with an ultra pure neutral gas. Moreover, the load loadlock device is also adapted to release the assembled pressurized container onto the IN station (402-I) of the extra-bay conveyor (402) of the COAST manufacturing line and to simultaneously provide identification data to the host computer controlling said line. Similar reasoning applies to the disassembler apparatus has a quite similar construction and performs the reverse steps.