Patent ID: 6979168

Claim:
A method for transferring wafers in a bay, said wafers having different processing speeds in being processed by a plurality of processing equipments in said bay, comprising the steps of: transferring any wafer stored inside a front opening unified pod (FOUP) one by one on a first transfer line in the bay; transferring any wafer stored within the FOUP one by one on a second transfer line having a wafer transfer plane that is opposed to any wafer transfer plane of said first transfer line in the bay; conveying said wafers one by one between (a) said first and second transfer lines in the bay and (b) a plurality of processing equipments disposed along the wafer transfer planes of said first and second transfer lines; and selectively utilizing said first transfer line and said second transfer line, based on processing information of said wafers corresponding to wafers having fast and slow processing speeds, when transferring said wafers in the bay one by one.