Robotic accessible wafer shipper assembly

Claim 1

A wafer shipper assembly comprising: (a) a shipper base including a generally rectangular floor member having walls angled upwardly and slightly outwardly from the floor to a generally rectangular shaped rim, interior vertical corner indentations, an interior vertical bar indentation in an end wall, exterior recesses generally conforming to the corner indentations and the bar indentation extending from the floor to about the mid-height of the base, the walls generally conforming to the shape of the rim from the rim to about the mid-height of the base, thereby forming exteriorly accessible ledges at each corner of the base at about the mid-height of the base and one part of a two part latching arrangement on each of two opposite walls; (b) a generally rectangular carrier including an exteriorly projecting bay shaped rear face and an open letter-H configured front face securing outer edges of mirror-image side faces, interiorly extending wafer supporting spacers in the side faces for supporting a plurality of wafers in upright parallel spaced apart axial alignment, vertical wings angled outwardly from outer edges of the front and rear faces extending up from about the mid-height of the carrier, registration bars on outer edges of the front face extending down from about the mid-height of the carrier; and (c) a shipper cover including a generally rectangular top member having a plurality of wafer engaging and supporting members in cooperating alignment with the wafer supporting spacers in the carrier, four walls angled downwardly and slightly outwardly from the top member and a second part of a two part latching arrangement on each of two on opposite walls in cooperating alignment with said one part of a two part latching arrangement on the shipper base; so that the wafer carrier is received within the shipper base with registration bars cooperating with the bar end indentation to insure one-way alignment of the wafer carrier within the shipper base, and the shipper cover is received by the shipper base containing the wafer carrier with the wafer supporting members in the cover cooperating with the wafer supporting spacers in the carrier to provide upright parallel spaced apart axial alignment of wafers, and with one part of a two part latching arrangement on the cover cooperating with a second part of a two part latching arrangement on the shipper base to provide latching engagement of the shipper cover with the shipper base containing the wafer carrier, thus providing a secure package for transportation and storage of wafers.