| 摘要 |
<p>PURPOSE:To remove wafer extraction operation to an unnecessary slot such as an empty slot, to quicken wafer extraction operation and to improve the throughput capacity of a device by previously identify whether or not semiconductor wafers are present regarding all slots in a wafer carrier and beforehand storing the presence data of the wafers. CONSTITUTION:A wafer carrier 2 is loaded onto a carrier elevating base 8 in a load locking chamber, whether or not semiconductor wafers 6 at every slot 7 of the wafer carrier 2 are present is identified by a wafer position sensing mechanism 9 while lifting the carrier elevating base 8, and wafer housing information is stored previously in a memory. The wafer carrier 8 is elevated or lowered so that the specified semiconductor wafer 6 and a conveying arm 5a shows a height at the same level, and the extraction work of the semiconductor wafer 6 is conducted. Since the presence data of the semiconductor wafers in each slot in the wafer carrier is stored beforehand in the memory at that time, the extraction operation of the semiconductor wafers need not be performed to all slots in the wafer carrier, and extraction operation is shortened.</p> |
