Recently, very importance has been placed on the quality, delivery, and production cost of masks/reticles as factors relating to the fabrication of high-density devices. These factors have a significant bearing on the success in the device business. In addition, quality requirements for masks/reticles are becoming more and more tightening. To fulfill these requirements, it has been considered necessary to automate production processes. Automation of mask/reticle production has been difficult because the market is small and the development of such automation has been expensive. Therefore, it has been recognized that old-type mask/reticle factories must be turned into automated factories at inexpensively and efficiently.
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