Flexible carrier for semiconductor wafer cassettes

Claim 1

Apparatus for transporting semiconductor material cassettes during processing, comprising: (a) a tray having two wafer cassette stations thereon, said cassette station comprising: a cassette supporting surface; a first pair of substantially parallel cassette guides on said supporting surface; and, a second pair of substantially parallel cassette guides on said supporting surface located between and substantially at right angles to said first pair to form a generally rectangular boundary, said stations are approximately equal in size; b. a handle neck extending upwardly from the same side of the tray as the cassette guides and between said stations, and located in a plane that intersects and is perpendicular to said tray; c. a handle crosspiece connected to the handle neck and having a bearing surface oriented substantially parallel to the plane of said parallel wafer cassette guides and said tray and, d. picker means for engaging the handle neck and handle crosspiece, said picker means having a pair of substantially parallel fingers separated by a distance slightly larger than the width of said neck and said fingers having in them substantially parallel transverse grooves slightly wider than the width of said handle crosspiece; and, at least one fillet located between the handle neck and handle crosspiece, whereby when the fingers of the picker means straddle the handle neck and approach the handle crosspiece for engaging and lifting the apparatus, the fillet guides the picker means and the handle neck and handle crosspiece into the desired engagement relationship with each other.