Method and system for locally buffering substrate carriers in an overhead transport system for enhancing input/output capabilities of process tools

1. A method of exchanging transport carriers with a process tool of a manufacturing environment, the method comprising:

receiving a first transport carrier, which stores a plurality of substrates, in a first one of a plurality of buffer places of a buffer system by directly transferring said first transport carrier from a first vehicle of an overhead transport system to said first buffer place;

transferring said first transport carrier from said first buffer place to a first load port of said process tool using a transport mechanism that is movable independently with respect to said first vehicle;

unloading the plurality of substrates from the first transport carrier into said process tool for processing;

transferring, using the transport mechanism, said first transport carrier to a second one of the plurality of buffer places;

retrieving the plurality of substrates from said process tool using said first transport carrier; and

storing said first transport carrier in said second buffer place between unloading said substrates to said process tool and retrieving the plurality of substrates from said process tool.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising delivering said first transport carrier from the second buffer place to a second load port of said process tool by using said transport mechanism so that the plurality of substrates can be loaded into said first transport carrier, and transferring said first transport carrier to a third one of said plurality of buffer places of said buffer system.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising transferring said first transport carrier from the third buffer place to a second vehicle and conveying said first transport carrier to a destination within said manufacturing environment.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein said second vehicle is moved along a dedicated rail in a reciprocating manner so as to serve said plurality of buffer places and a plurality of load ports of said process tool including said first load port.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising picking up said first transport carrier by said transport mechanism after supplying each member of a first lot of substrates contained therein into a process module of said process tool via said first load port and transferring said empty transport carrier to said second one of said plurality of buffer places.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising conveying said first transport carrier from said second one of said plurality of buffer places to a load port by said transport mechanism for receiving a lot of substrates having been processed in said process module of said process tool.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein said lot is said first lot previously contained in said first transport carrier.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein said lot differs from said first lot.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising supplying each member of a first lot of substrates contained in said first transport carrier into a process module of said process tool via said first load port and receiving another lot of substrates in said first transport carrier, said substrates of the another lot having been processed in said process module.

10. A method, comprising:

exchanging one or more substrates contained as one or more groups in one or more substrate carriers between an overhead transport system and an overhead carrier buffer system of a manufacturing environment, said one or more substrates dedicated for processing in a specific process tool of said manufacturing environment; and

exchanging said one or more substrate carriers between said overhead buffer system and load ports of said specific process tool by moving a dedicated vehicle of said overhead buffer system in a reciprocating manner between said load ports so as to supply said one or more substrates to the specific process tool and pick up said one or more substrate carriers from said specific process tool, said dedicated vehicle of said overhead buffer system being movable independently from any vehicles used in said overhead transport system, wherein said one or more substrate carriers are stored in said overhead buffer system after supplying said one or more substrates to the specific process tool and before picking up said one or more substrates from the specific process tool.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising transferring an empty substrate carrier of said one or more substrate carriers from one of said load ports to said overhead buffer system via said dedicated vehicle so as to temporarily store said empty carrier.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising transferring said empty substrate carrier to one of said load ports to receive the same one or more groups of substrates previously contained in said presently empty substrate carrier.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein, after processing said one or more substrates in said specific process tool, at least one of said one or more substrate carriers receives substrates other than substrates initially contained therein.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein said at least one substrate carrier is temporarily stored in said overhead buffer system between supplying and receiving said substrates.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein exchanging said one or more substrate carriers between said overhead transport system and said overhead buffer system comprises directly exchanging substrate carriers between transport vehicles of said overhead transport system and buffer places in said overhead buffer system.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein exchanging said one or more substrate carriers between said overhead buffer system and said load ports comprises directly receiving substrate carriers in said dedicated vehicle from a buffer place in said overhead buffer system, moving said dedicated vehicle above a destination load port and directly transferring said substrate carrier to said destination load port.