US 11,984,335 B2
FOUP or cassette storage for hybrid substrate bonding system
Coby Scott Grove, Whitefish, MT (US); Ruiping Wang, San Jose, CA (US); Avinash Shantaram, Whitefish, MT (US); and Jitendra Ratilal Bhimjiyani, Santa Clara, CA (US)
Assigned to APPLIED MATERIALS, INC., Santa Clara, CA (US)
Filed by Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US)
Filed on Dec. 29, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/564,511.
Prior Publication US 2023/0207358 A1, Jun. 29, 2023
Int. Cl. H01L 21/673 (2006.01); H01L 21/677 (2006.01)
CPC H01L 21/67303 (2013.01) [H01L 21/67778 (2013.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An equipment front end module (EFEM), comprising:
two or more loadports for receiving two or more types of substrates;
an overhead storage unit having a plurality of storage shelves disposed above the two or more loadports and configured to hold two or more types of front opening unified pods (FOUPs) of different sizes that store the two or more types of substrates, respectively, wherein a horizontal alley is disposed between the plurality of storage shelves and the two or more loadports to provide a horizontal passageway for the FOUPs during transport to the two or more loadports;
an overhead transport system having a pair of vertical actuators disposed on opposite sides of the overhead storage unit and configured to transport FOUPs from the overhead storage unit to the two or more loadports, wherein the plurality of storage shelves are disposed between the pair of vertical actuators;
one or more first type of FOUPs disposed on respective ones of the plurality of storage shelves; and
one or more second type of FOUPs configured to hold tape frame substrates disposed on respective ones of the plurality of storage shelves.