A method and an apparatus for handling wafers.

摘要

A semiconductor wafer handling apparatus and method for transferring a wafer, one of whose faces has been already polished, from a wafer holder, which holds the wafer with the wafer's polished face facing downward, to a wafer cassette submerged in water contained in a water tank; the apparatus includes a wafer receive assembly and a water tank and the wafer receive assembly has a flat surface and is adapted to swing between an up-facing position at which the flat surface faces upward and a down-facing position at which the flat surface faces downward, and the wafer receive assembly is provided with ejection nozzles which eject water with a force sufficient to keep the wafer floating, and the water tank contains a wafer cassette to receive the wafer, and is capable of forcing the wafer which is left to sink in the water to enter the wafer cassette; whereas the method comprises: dropping the wafer from the wafer holder with the polished face facing downward onto a thin water layer formed over the wafer receive assembly; swinging the wafer receive assembly together with the wafer through an angle of about 180 DEG so that the wafer is turned upside down and brought in the water tank, whereupon the wafer sinks through the water with the polished face facing upward; and forcing the wafer to enter the wafer cassette.