A carrier system is provided with a wafer stage (WST) which holds a mounted wafer (W) and is also movable along an XY plane, a chuck unit (153) which holds the wafer from above in a non-contact manner above a predetermined position and is vertically movable, and a plurality of vertical movement pins (140), which can support from below the wafer held by the chuck unit (153) on the wafer stage (WST) when the wafer stage (WST) is positioned at the predetermined position above and can also move vertically. Then, flatness of the wafer (W) is measured by a Z position detection system (146), and based on the measurement results, the chuck unit(153) and the vertical movement pins (140) that hold (support) the wafer (W) are independently driven.

In a carrier system, a chuck unit (153) is used to hold a placed wafer (W) from above, and vertical-motion pins (140) use suction to hold the wafer (W) from below. Then, chuck unit (153) and vertical-motion pins (140) are subsequently lowered until a bottom surface of the wafer comes into contact with a wafer table (WTB). During the lowering, the holding force exerted by chuck unit (153) and the arrangement of chuck members (124) are optimally adjusted such that, as a result of the restraint of wafer (W) by chuck unit (153) and vertical-motion pins (140), localized surplus-restraint is imparted to wafer (W), and warping does not occur.

A loading/unloading robot includes an arm unit attached to a support unit that is capable of being raised and lowered and a hand unit for conveying a loaded/unloaded object, attached to the arm unit. The support unit includes a base portion capable of revolving around a raising/lowering axis and a head portion rotatably attached to the base portion. The arm unit includes arms that are rotatably attached to the head portion. Front ends of the arms move forward and backward along a forward/backward direction that passes the head portion. The hand unit includes a loading/unloading hand rotatably attached to the arm. A center distance from the rotational axis of the head portion to the rotational axes of rear arms is shorter than a center distance from an axis of revolution of the base portion to the rotational axis of the head portion.

This application is to provide an industrial robot in which a main body portion, to which the base end side of an arm is rotatably joined, can be made thin. For instance, this industrial robot is equipped with hands, on which objects-to-be-transferred are to be mounted, an arm, with which the hand is rotatably joined to the front end side thereof, and a main body portion 7, with which the base end side of the arm is rotatably joined; the main body portion 7 is provided with an elevating unit 20, to which the base end side of the arm is rotatably joined on the top surface side thereof, a housing 21, which holds the elevating unit 20 to be raised/lowered and in which at least part of the bottom end of the elevating unit 20 is housed, and an elevating mechanism 22 for raising/lowering the elevating unit 20. The elevating mechanism 22 is housed in the housing 21 such that it aligns with the elevating unit when viewed in the top-bottom direction.

The end effector device (1) includes a hand (3) having a storing space, and a plurality of holding portions (4A, 4B) provided to the hand (3) and configured to respectively peripheral portions of each plate member. Each holding portion (4A, 4B) includes a plurality of receiving portions (42) which respectively receive a plurality of plate members keeping vertical pitches among them, and a pitch changing mechanism (7) configured to change intervals by vertically moving the plurality of receiving portions (42) respectively. A plurality of linearly moving portions (41A) configured to respectively move linearly integrally with the plurality of receiving portions (42) are provided to the hand (3) being exposed outside of the hand (3), and a plurality of drive portions configured to drive the plurality of linearly moving portions (41A) of the pitch changing mechanism (7) are stored in the storing space of the hand (3).

A substrate processing apparatus capable of inhibiting diffusion of a chemical solution atmosphere around a processing bath. The substrate processing apparatus has a processing bath for storing a substrate holder holding a substrate and for processing the substrate, a lifter configured to support the substrate holder, store the substrate holder in the processing bath, and take out the substrate holder from the processing bath, and a cover configured to cover the periphery of the substrate holder taken out from the processing bath by the lifter.

In this specification, a chip supplying apparatus which supplies a chip to a mounting machine which mounts the chip on a substrate is disclosed. The chip supplying apparatus is provided with a wafer table which holds a wafer sheet at a position where an operation head of the mounting machine can receive the chip. In the chip supplying apparatus, the wafer table is provided with a frame, a stopper which is fixed to the center of a front portion of the frame and abuts against a front end of the wafer sheet, and a pair of clamp mechanisms which is supported by the frame and which clamps both side ends of the wafer sheet. In the chip supplying apparatus, a position of the pair of clamp mechanisms in a right-and-left direction with respect to the frame can be changed in multiple steps.