Within many fields, substrates, wafers, etc. must be processed, stored and otherwise moved within a factory, assembly line, or system. Since the introduction of the 300-mm wafer semiconductor material, Front Opening Unified Pods, or “FOUPs,” have become the standard storage and transport method of substrates and similar materials. FOUPs have been used to isolate and hold silicon wafers for use in semiconductor production. Semiconductors, fundamental in the design of digital circuitry, microprocessors, and transistors, require these wafers to remain in as close to immaculate condition as storage units allow. Accordingly, FOUPs allow wafers to be transferred between other machines used in the processing and measurement of wafers.
Prior FOUPs generally serve to preserve wafers from the surrounding clean room environment. In conventional semiconductor projects, FOUPs allow wafers to enter the apparatus via a load port and front opening door. Often, robot handling mechanisms may place the wafers into the FOUP, where they are clamped in place by fins and held for later use. Yet FOUPs today are hampered by methods and system designs which may contaminate their contents, chafe wafers, and delay loading and unloading of substrate wafer contents as a result of multifarious construction. Thus, there may be a need for an invention that more efficiently and accurately accomplishes the desired tasks of FOUPs.
The improved Tec-Cell provides this improvement, and as such may be to become the new standard in substrate manufacturing. With many advantages over the prior arts and FOUPS, Tec-Cells provide for high density, efficient, clean and resilient processing and capabilities over prior art. However, Tec-Cell systems must work within larger systems and existing infrastructure and as such the new components, systems, buffers, stations, etc. must be made to be able to either through adapters, or otherwise be able to interface with existing systems, carriers etc., of which are mostly FOUPs but may be other designs and standards. Specifically, to this application, FOUP and other Prior Art substrate systems have subpar management software and systems that are not able to handle the increased capacity and design complexity and abilities of future substrate manufacturing needs, especially those using Tec-Cells.
Therefore, software and system management that may be improved and provides for more robust abilities may be necessary wherein the software can control Tec-Cells, FOUPs, and the associated movement systems and structures, such as stockers, transfer mechanism, openers etc., in an efficient manner. However, prior systems have not been able to provide this ability or capability, and may be missing the complexity of providing for controlling the systems. In addition, prior systems may not be able to move substrates between stacks based on both input and output characteristics, and may have limitations for providing an efficient service of substrates.
It may be clear then these may be a need for software and management system, apparatuses and devices which provide for efficient and seamless management of substrate processing steps, including intermediary storage, transferring and system integration of Tec-Cell substrates among other types such as FOUPs. This improved software and management system then can be used to provide substrates efficiently and quickly, including improvements such as tracking, identification, sorting, and transferring etc. as well as provide efficient high-density storage, which may be able to move and transfer substrate between each other based on categories, and other characteristics, as well as being able to be implemented in existing FOUP systems and other systems, of which may be needed within the field.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds