Abstract: A wafer lifting apparatus is comprised of guide rails (10) that are disposed on a supporting surface (22). A lifting apparatus (24) is disposed on the surface (22), having an inclined surface (26). Grooves (28) are disposed on the inclined surface and spaced apart a distance equal to that of wafers (20) in a wafer handling boat (16). The wafer handling boat (16) has the end pieces (12) and (14) urged downward into the guide rails (10) until the lowermost peripheral edges of the wafers (20) contact the grooves (28) in the inclined surface (26). When fully lowered, the rearmost ones of the wafers (20) are completely lifted out of the boat such that they are supported entirely by the grooves (28). In this manner, they can be viewed from the end of the wafer lifting apparatus. A flat finding device in the form of a flat finding cylinder (44) is also provided in an opening (38) on a supporting surface (36) for holding the boat (16).

Abstract: An apparatus is disclosed for the bulk transfer of semiconductor wafers from container to container for processing in the back-to-back configuration. The apparatus includes a stage (12) for selectively raising the wafers from a boat (14) upward into a retaining mechanism (18). The wafers are confined in a back-to-back configuration through a slot (64) in the end of a back-to-back retainer (34). The back-to-back configured wafers are then removed, processed and then disposed back in the retaining mechanism (18). The back-to-back wafers are aligned with an alignment slot (76) in a preseparation retainer (36). The preseparation retainer (36) provides both alignment and a slight preseparation with respect to a separation retainer (38). The separation retainer (38) has a separation edge (118) which separates the back-to-back configured wafers into slots (104) and (108). The wafers are then removed after separation thereof.

Abstract: An apparatus is disclosed for the bulk transfer of pluralities of semiconductor wafers or slices from container to container. The device includes a stage adapted to receive a standard semiconductor wafer container and a plurality of vertical storage slots are provided above the stage. A pneumatically controlled elevation device is utilized to raise a plurality of semiconductor wafers from each container into the storage slots and an automatic wafer retainer is selectively rotated in response to each operation of the elevation device to retain the semiconductor wafers within the storage slots. In a preferred mode of the present invention the wafer retainer is designed to permit insertion and retention of a first plurality of semiconductor wafers into odd numbered storage slots while permitting insertion of a second plurality of semiconductor wafers into even numbered storage slots.