Abstract: A circulating EFEM includes an introduction port for introducing a gas, a housing for circulating the introduced gas, and a discharge port for discharging the gas from the housing into a discharge pipe. The discharge port includes a box and a damper. The box is disposed to surround a discharge opening formed on the housing and connected to the discharge pipe. The damper is disposed inside the box to close and open the discharge port and adjusts a discharge amount of the gas via the discharge opening by at least partially moving in response to a differential pressure between the housing and the box.

Abstract: A wafer transport container interior atmosphere measurement device is arranged in wafer transport container. The device detects an atmosphere in the wafer transport container and communicates the atmosphere. The device includes a detector, a transmitter, and a power source. The detector detects the atmosphere in the wafer transport container. The transmitter wirelessly transmits a first information including a detection result by the detector to an external receiver. The power source supplies electric power to the detector and the transmitter.

Abstract: A circulating EFEM includes an introduction port for introducing a gas, a housing for circulating the introduced gas, and a discharge port for discharging the gas from the housing into a discharge pipe. The discharge port includes a box and a damper. The box is disposed to surround a discharge opening formed on the housing and connected to the discharge pipe. The damper is disposed inside the box to close and open the discharge port and adjusts a discharge amount of the gas via the discharge opening by at least partially moving in response to a differential pressure between the housing and the box.

Abstract: A circulating EFEM includes an introduction port for introducing a gas, a housing for circulating the introduced gas, and a discharge port for discharging the gas from the housing into a discharge pipe. The discharge port includes a box and a damper. The box is disposed to surround a discharge opening formed on the housing and connected to the discharge pipe. The damper is disposed inside the box to close and open the discharge port and adjusts a discharge amount of the gas via the discharge opening by at least partially moving in response to a differential pressure between the housing and the box.

Abstract: A circulating EFEM includes an introduction port for introducing a gas, a housing for circulating the introduced gas, and a discharge port for discharging the gas from the housing into a discharge pipe. The discharge port includes a box and a damper. The box is disposed to surround a discharge opening formed on the housing and connected to the discharge pipe. The damper is disposed inside the box to close and open the discharge port and adjusts a discharge amount of the gas via the discharge opening by at least partially moving in response to a differential pressure between the housing and the box.

Abstract: A wafer transport container interior atmosphere measurement device is arranged in wafer transport container. The device detects an atmosphere in the wafer transport container and communicates the atmosphere. The device includes a detector, a transmitter, and a power source. The detector detects the atmosphere in the wafer transport container. The transmitter wirelessly transmits a first information including a detection result by the detector to an external receiver. The power source supplies electric power to the detector and the transmitter.

Abstract: A gas purge unit includes an intake nozzle 28, a pivotable body 31, and an O-ring 35. The intake nozzle 28 has a nozzle opening 26 flowing out a cleaning gas. The pivotable body 31 is arranged in ring shape to surround a cylindrical projection 28b of the nozzle 28, and is provided with a contact part 34 capable of detachably contacting with an intake port 5 on a tip portion of the pivotable body 31. The ring-shaped O-ring 33 is held between a rear end of the pivotable body 31 and a base portion 28a of the nozzle 28 in a compressively elastically deformable manner along a longitudinal direction of the cylindrical projection 28b.

Abstract: A gas purge unit includes an intake nozzle 28, a pivotable body 31, and an O-ring 35. The intake nozzle 28 has a nozzle opening 26 flowing out a cleaning gas. The pivotable body 31 is arranged in a ring shape to surround a cylindrical projection 28b of the nozzle 28, and is provided with a contact part 34 formed on a tip portion of the pivotable body 31 to be able to detachably contact with the intake port 5. The ring-shaped O-ring 35 is held to be compressively elastically deformable along a longitudinal direction of the cylindrical projection 28b between a rear end of the pivotable body 31 and a base portion 28a of the nozzle 28.

Abstract: A gas purge unit includes an intake nozzle 28, a pivotable body 31, and an O-ring 35. The intake nozzle 28 has a nozzle opening 26 flowing out a cleaning gas. The pivotable body 31 is arranged in ring shape to surround a cylindrical projection 28b of the nozzle 28, and is provided with a contact part 34 capable of detachably contacting with an intake port 5 on a tip portion of the pivotable body 31. The ring-shaped O-ring 33 is held between a rear end of the pivotable body 31 and a base portion 28a of the nozzle 28 in a compressively elastically deformable manner along a longitudinal direction of the cylindrical projection 28b.

Abstract: To enable appropriate wafer mapping in the case where a wafer is stored at the highest level, which is provided as a reserve, of a pod, a load port apparatus drives a mapping frame that supports a sensor by a first driving unit that drives the mapping frame in a first direction parallel to the direction along which wafers in the pod are arranged in an overlapping manner and a second driving unit that drives the mapping frame in a second direction that crosses the first direction in such a way as to form an acute angle in the side in which the sensor starts the mapping.

Abstract: A gas purge unit includes an intake nozzle 28, a pivotable body 31, and an O-ring 35. The intake nozzle 28 has a nozzle opening 26 flowing out a cleaning gas. The pivotable body 31 is arranged in a ring shape to surround a cylindrical projection 28b of the nozzle 28, and is provided with a contact part 34 formed on a tip portion of the pivotable body 31 to be able to detachably contact with the intake port 5. The ring-shaped O-ring 35 is held to be compressively elastically deformable along a longitudinal direction of the cylindrical projection 28b between a rear end of the pivotable body 31 and a base portion 28a of the nozzle 28.

Abstract: In a load port apparatus, a door driving mechanism that supports a door through a communication opening portion leading to a mini-environment is housed in a housing chamber that is in communication with the mini-environment through the communication opening portion. Exhaust opening portions are provided in the upper portion of a wall of the housing chamber that is opposed to the communication opening portion and a bottom wall of the housing chamber. Thus, gas passages from the mini-environment to the housing chamber and then to the external space are formed. Thus, dust in the load port apparatus is removed.

Abstract: To enable appropriate wafer mapping in the case where a wafer is stored at the highest level, which is provided as a reserve, of a pod, a load port apparatus drives a mapping frame that supports a sensor by a first driving unit that drives the mapping frame in a first direction parallel to the direction along which wafers in the pod are arranged in an overlapping manner and a second driving unit that drives the mapping frame in a second direction that crosses the first direction in such a way as to form an acute angle in the side in which the sensor starts the mapping.

Abstract: Provided is a method of detecting whether or not a lid is fixed to a pod appropriately when performing an operation of closing an opening of the pod by the lid in an FIMS system. Determination is made whether or not a door is present at a predetermined position when the lid is attached to the pod and whether or not the pod is displaced from a position of opening/closing the lid, and determination is made again, after the lid engages with the pod, whether or not the door is present at the predetermined position and whether or not the pod is displaced from the position of opening/closing the lid. When it is confirmed in both the determinations that the door is present at the predetermined position and the pod is not displaced, determination that fixation of the lid is appropriate is made.

Abstract: In a load port apparatus, a door driving mechanism that supports a door through a communication opening portion leading to a mini-environment is housed in a housing chamber that is in communication with the mini-environment through the communication opening portion. Exhaust opening portions are provided in the upper portion of a wall of the housing chamber that is opposed to the communication opening portion and a bottom wall of the housing chamber. Thus, gas passages from the mini-environment to the housing chamber and then to the external space are formed. Thus, dust in the load port apparatus is removed.

Abstract: Provided is a method of detecting whether or not a lid is fixed to a pod appropriately when performing an operation of closing an opening of the pod by the lid in an FIMS system. Determination is made whether or not a door is present at a predetermined position when the lid is attached to the pod and whether or not the pod is displaced from a position of opening/closing the lid, and determination is made again, after the lid engages with the pod, whether or not the door is present at the predetermined position and whether or not the pod is displaced from the position of opening/closing the lid. When it is confirmed in both the determinations that the door is present at the predetermined position and the pod is not displaced, determination that fixation of the lid is appropriate is made.

Abstract: A plurality of detection marks that can be detected from outside are provided on a lid of a pod. Whether the lid is appropriately fixed on the pod main body is determined by detecting the presence of the marks at predetermined positions. Thus, whether the lid is appropriately fixed on the pod is detected in the operation of closing the pod opening with the lid in a FIMS system.

Abstract: Provided is a detecting device for an FIMS system, for easily and simply detecting a slip-out of a glass wafer from an FOUP or detective storage thereof. The detecting device includes a light transmission sensor and a light reflection sensor. A light emitting portion of the light reflection sensor, a light receiving portion thereof, and one of a light emitting portion of the light transmission sensor and a light receiving portion thereof are disposed on one surface side of a substrate to be detected in a position in which the substrate is located. The other of the light emitting portion of the light transmission sensor and the light receiving portion thereof is disposed on the other surface side of the substrate to be detected in the position in which the substrate is located.

Abstract: A fine pressure fluctuation at short time intervals occurring when a portable type hermetically sealed container is purged is reduced to thereby prevent the deterioration or the like of a seal member due to the pressure fluctuation. In order to achieve this object, a gas flow rate regulating apparatus is disposed in a gas supplying system in a purging system, and pressure in the portable type hermetically sealed container during purge is measured and the result thereof is fed back to thereby control the flow rate of a supplied gas.

Abstract: The object of the invention is to provide an apparatus used in a plasma exchange therapy, which is operable with only a minor modification to a conventional plasma exchange apparatus and wherein valuable plasma is not disposed but recycled as a dialysis solution. The present invention is related to an apparatus used in a plasma exchange therapy wherein at least a portion of separated plasma is purified and circulated as a dialysis solution to dialyze patient's blood to remove harmful substances contained in the plasma; a plasma exchange apparatus incorporating said apparatus; and an artificial liver equipped with these apparatuses.