Abstract: A robot traveling duct for clean room in which a vertical laminar flow of air is produced from a ceiling filter toward a floor thereof, and in which the robot traveling duct is arranged within the clean room and below the ceiling filter and surrounds a guide rail of the robot, the robot traveling duct including a longitudinal opening for connection between the guide rail and the robot. The robot traveling duct includes a first enclosure for enclosing the guide rail to extend along the guide rail, the first enclosure having an air intake system for introducing air, issuing from the ceiling filter, into the first enclosure. The robot traveling duct further includes a second enclosure mounted to the first enclosure to be located below the first enclosure, the second enclosure including a second enclosure filter for filtering air therein and allowing the filtered air to go downwards into the clean room, the second enclosure extending along the guide rail and being equal in width to the first enclosure.

Abstract: A railway carrier apparatus for semiconductor wafers which are contained in a wafer cassette is disclosed. This railway carrier apparatus includes: a carrier for carrying the wafer cassette; a guide rail, disposed along a line of travel of the carrier, for supporting the carrier to guide the carrier along the line of travel; and a drive mechanism for driving the carrier along the line of travel. The carrier includes; a carrier body slidably connected to the guide rail for movement along the guide rail; and a bedplate member, mounted on the carrier body, for supporting the wafer cassette on its upper face. The upper face of the bedplate member is inclined with respect to a horizontal plane in such a manner that one of its opposite side edges is positioned at a higher level than the other side edge.

Abstract: There is disclosed a robot used in a clean room and adapted to transport a wafer cassette containing semiconductor wafers. The robot includes: a guide rail disposed in the clean room; a robot body slidably connected to the guide rail for movement along the guide rail; and a first drive mechanism for driving the robot body along the guide rail. The robot body includes: a clamping hand for releasably clamping the wafer cassette; an arm assembly, extending between the guide rail and the clamping hand, for controlling the position of the clamping hand; and a wrist assembly, interposed between the arm assembly and the clamping hand, for adjusting the orientation of the clamping hand.

Abstract: There is disclosed a dusttight storage cabinet apparatus used for storing works such as wafer cassettes for containing semiconductor wafers. The storage cabinet apparatus includes: a housing having an entrance, formed in its front wall, for allowing works to come in and go out of the housing therethrough; an air supply duct for supplying the inside of the housing with clean air; a vertical rotation shaft rotatably disposed in the housing for turning about its longitudinal axis; a drive motor for turning the rotation shaft; and a rack assembly of a substantially cylindrical structure. The rack assembly is coaxially secured to the rotation shaft and has a plurality of compartments for storing the works therewithin. The compartments open radially outward and are partitioned off from one another so as to prevent cross contamination by dust among the compartments.

Abstract: A transfer system for transferring a SMIF pod.TM. in a clean room, in which the pod is adapted to contain a wafer cassette. The transfer system includes: at least one pair of SMIF arms.TM., the arms disposed adjacent to a semiconductor processing apparatus for transferring wafers, carried in the wafer cassette, into and out of the semiconductor processing apparatus; a transfer tube disposed near the arms; a vehicle adapted to carry the pod and adapted to move within the transfer tube; evacuation mechanism for evacuating the transfer tube to produce a negative pressure within the transfer tube so that the vehicle is moved along an axis of the transfer tube due to the negative pressure; and at least one pair of conveying mechanisms for conveying the vehicle between the transfer tube and respective arms.

Abstract: A semiconductor processing system which includes: a first semiconductor wafer cassette for housing semiconductor wafers; a first transfer pod for enclosing the first cassette airtightly, the first pod having a box-like pod body with an open bottom and a bottom plate detachably attached to the pod body for closing the bottom of the pod body; a wafer processing equipment having a first port for loading the cassette and a canopy covering the first port, the processing equipment processing the wafer in the first cassette when the cassette is loaded in the first port; and a first mechanism for transferring the first cassette between the first port of the processing equipment and the first pod without exposing the cassette and the wafers therein to outside contamination.

Abstract: Apparatus for removing black fumes from exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine includes a filter mounted on an exhaust pipe of the engine. The filter includes a body defining a filter chamber and a filter element mounted within the filter chamber for collecting carbon particles constituting the black fume. A solution dispersing device is provided for dispersing a solution of catalyst to the exhaust gas in the filter chamber at a position upstream of the filter element to cause the oxidation of the carbon particles collected in the filter element to remove them therefrom. There is also disclosed a method of removing black fume from exhaust gas from the internal combustion engine.

Abstract: Heat-resistant filters 6, 7 are disposed at the upstream side of a catalyst bed 9. These heat-resistant filters 6, 7 perform filtration to completely catch and remove the smoke particles suspended by the exhaust gas, so that the undesirable attaching of the smoke particles to the catalyst bed 9 is fairly avoided. Also, means are provided to regenerate the heat-resistant filters simply by burning the smoke particles attaching to these filters. In another embodiment, a heat-resistant filter 24 and a catalyst bed 26 are shaped to have hollow cylindrical forms and are superposed to each other. For regenerating the heat-resistant filter 24, hot air is introduced into the filter 24 by the action of a high pressure burner 28 or a vacuum generating section 33. The heat-resistant filter 24 and the catalyst bed 26 are accomodated by a single case 21.