[54] APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING WAFER-SHAPED SUBSTRATES
[75] Inventors: Masami Akimoto; Kazutoshi Yoshioka; Naruaki Iida, all of Kumamoto, Japan
[73] Assignees: Tokyo Electron Limited, Tokyo;
Tokyo Electron Kyushu Limited,
Kumamoto, both of Japan
[21] Appl. No.: 14,161
[22] Filed: Feb. 5, 1993
[30] Foreign Application Priority Data
Feb. 5, 1992 [JP] Japan 4-047738
[51] Int.C1.5 B65G1/00
[52] U.S. CI 414/416; 414/937;
414/941; 414/225; 414/627; 414/744.3;
414/752; 901/46
[58] Field of Search 414/217, 222, 225, 226,
414/618, 619, 331, 627, 935, 937, 749, 939, 940, 941,744.7, 626, 744.2, 744.3,273,751, 752, 753;
118/719; 204/298.25; 901/46, 47
[56] References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
4,465,416 8/1984 Burkhalter et al 414/941 X
4,846,623 7/1989 Otani et al 414/933 X
4,985,722 1/1991 Ushijima et al. .
5,083,896 1/1992 Uehara et al 414/933 X
5,133,635 7/1992 Malin et al 414/941 X
5,183,370 2/1993 Cruz 414/937 X
5,217,340 6/1993 Harada et al 414/941 X
FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
139341 6/1987 Japan 414/937
64231 3/1989 Japan 414/939
305533 12/1989 Japan 414/941
2-196414 8/1990 Japan .
271643 11/1990 Japan 414/937
34345 2/1991 Japan 414/935
468409 1/1992 WIPO 414/937
Primary Examiner—Frank E. Werner
Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Obion, Spivak, McClelland,
Maier & Neustadt
[57] ABSTRACT
An apparatus for coating and developing a resist on a wafer comprises a carrier station provided with a plurality of carriers for receiving wafers and transfer tables, a processing section having a plurality of processing units, and a transfer robot provided between the carrier station and the processing section. The robot comprises a plate-shaped arm for transferring wafers between the carriers and the transfer tables, and two horseshoe-shaped forks for transferring wafers between the processing units and transfer tables. The robot is movable along a transfer path so as to make the arm and forks face the carriers, processing units and transfer tables.
21 Claims, 7 Drawing Sheets
