Patent ID: 7114908

Claim:
An apparatus for stacking semiconductor wafers, comprising: a housing having: an open top and open bottom enabling access to an interior cavity of the housing, an open side enabling access to the interior cavity, and the interior cavity having a plurality of supports spaced at fixed vertical intervals inside the housing enabling a plurality of wafers to be horizontally supported in a vertically spaced apart arrangement, the supports further adapted to enable the plurality of semiconductor wafers to be raised upwardly out of the housing; a transfer guide proximate to the open side of the housing, the transfer guide having a plurality of supporting splines arranged in registry with the supports of the housing such that wafers can be slid directly from the splines to an associated set of supports; a receptacle for receiving a cassette in a position enabling alignment with the transfer guide, such alignment arranging the wafers such that they are in alignment with the splines of the transfer guide thereby enabling the wafers to be slid directly from the cassette onto an associated set of splines of the transfer guide; and an elevator configured to pass upwardly through the open bottom of the housing detaching the semiconductor wafers from the supports and the housing and lifting the wafers upwardly to collect the semiconductor wafers into a stack.