Patent ID: 7826918

Claim:
A method for transferring objects, which employs a system for transferring an object, the system including: a semiconductor handling device provided with a single loading port, a first transfer mechanism having first transfer arms to transfer the objects between the single loading port and a processing unit, and a first optically coupled parallel input/output (I/O) communications interface; and an automatic transfer device provided with a second transfer mechanism having second transfer arms and a second optically coupled parallel I/O communications interface, wherein the first and the second transfer mechanism are configured to successively transfer the objects one by one to each other via the single loading port, and the first and the second optically coupled parallel I/O communications interface transmit and receive therebetween optical signals as control signals to control the first or the second transfer mechanism, the method comprising: unloading a processed object from a processing unit to the single loading port by the first transfer mechanism; holding an unprocessed object by one of the second transfer arms; and unloading the processed object from the single loading port by another of the second transfer arms while the unprocessed object is held by said one of the second transfer arms, wherein all objects to be processed in the processing unit and all the objects processed in the processing unit are transferred between the first and the second transfer mechanism via the single loading port.