Abstract
Automated material handling system is being used as a method to reduce manufacturing cost in the semiconductor and flat panel displays (FPDs) manufacturing process. Those are considering switch-over from the traditional cassette system to single-substrate transfer system to reduce raw materials of stocks in the processing line. In the present study, the wafer transportation speed has been evaluated by numerical and experimental method for three propulsion nozzle array (face, front, rear) in an air levitation system. Test facility for 300 mm wafer was equipped with two control tracks and a transfer track of 1,500mm length. The diameter of propulsion nozzle is 0.8mm and air velocity of wafer propulsion is $50\sim150m/s$. We found that the experimental results of the wafer transportation speed were well agreed with the numerical ones. Namely, the predicted values of the maximum wafer transportation speed are higher than those values of experimental data by 16% and the numerical result of the mean wafer transportation speed is higher than the experimental result within 20%.