Loading Port Latching Structure to Prevent Substrate Container Tilt
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing substrate container handling systems face challenges in maintaining the stability and airtightness of substrate containers during lid opening, leading to potential tilting and leakage of the local clean environment.
Innovation Solution
A frame and latching structure are employed to secure the substrate container, featuring a first surface for airtight contact and a latching mechanism with tapered surfaces to engage and disengage with the container flange, ensuring stable up-down and front-rear movement, using drivers and heads to maintain contact and prevent tilting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the substrate container is left unrestricted for easy loading and unloading, then the ease of operation is improved, but the substrate container may tilt when the lid is opened
Solution Approach 1:
The latching structure is designed to be dynamically switchable between engaged and disengaged states. When disengaged, the substrate container can be freely loaded and unloaded. When engaged, the latching structure prevents tilting by contacting the flange. This dynamic state change allows the system to adapt to different operational requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The latching structure automatically engages with the flange when the substrate container is placed on the loading port, providing self-stabilization without requiring external intervention. The structure uses the container's own flange as the engagement point, making the system self-sufficient.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the latching structure is designed to prevent tilting, then the stability of the substrate container is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The latching structure is segmented into multiple independent heads, each capable of engaging with the flange separately. This segmentation allows the system to achieve stable engagement through multiple simple contact points rather than one complex mechanism, reducing overall structural complexity while maintaining stability.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of using a complex active mechanism to prevent tilting, the invention uses a passive latching structure that simply contacts the flange. The stability is achieved by the geometric constraint of the latching heads contacting the flange surface, rather than through active control or complex mechanical linkages.
3Reliability
If the latching structure engages firmly with the flange, then the airtightness is improved, but the ease of operation for lid opening is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The latching structure operates in periodic cycles of engagement and disengagement. During engagement, firm contact with the flange ensures airtightness. During disengagement, the contact is released to allow lid opening. This periodic switching between states enables both firm sealing and easy operation at different times in the operational cycle.
Data Source
AI summary
It is possible to suppress a tilt of a substrate container when a lid of the substrate container is opened. There is provided a technique that includes: a frame separating inside and outside of a local clean environment, and including: a first surface outside the local clean environment airtightly contacting an opening of a substrate container; and an entrance for the substrate container; and a latching structure switching between an engaged state where it engages with a flange around the opening and a disengaged state where a movement of the substrate container is unrestricted in an up-down direction and in a front-rear direction. The latching structure includes: heads engaging with recesses on each side of the flange; and drivers moving the heads in a direction parallel to the first surface, the heads having a contact portion generating a pressing force for the flange against the first surface.