Brooks Automation Gmbh

Christopher C Kiley

Peter Van Der Meulen

Patrick D Pannese

Forrest Buzan

Paul E Fogel

Thomas A Schaefer

Raymond S Ritter

Christopher A Hofmeister

Modular wafer transport and handling facilities are combined in a variety of ways deliver greater levels of flexibility, utility, efficiency, and functionality in a vacuum semiconductor processing system. Various processing and other modules may be interconnected with tunnel-and-cart transportation systems to extend the distance and versatility of the vacuum environment. Other improvements such as bypass thermal adjusters, buffering aligners, batch processing, multifunction modules, low particle vents, cluster processing cells, and the like are incorporated to expand functionality and improve processing efficiency.

Semiconductor wafer handling transport

A device is provided having a robotic arm for handling a wafer, the robotic arm including one or more encoders that provide encoder data identifying a position of one or more components of the robotic arm. The device also having a processor adapted to apply an extended Kalman Filter to the encoder data to estimate a position of the wafer.

Wafer center finding with kalman filter

A semiconductor handling system including a vacuum workpiece handling system having a vacuum environment therein, the vacuum workpiece handling system including at least two workpiece handling robotic facilities, a mid-entry station positioned between the at least two workpiece handling robotic facilities, the mid-entry station including vertically stacked load locks, where the at least two workpiece handling robotic facilities are configured to transfer workpieces between the vertically stacked load locks, at least one workpiece loading station connected to the vacuum handling system, and a workpiece delivery system having an internal environment different from the vacuum environment, the workpiece delivery system being configured to transport the workpieces between each of the vertically stacked load locks of the mid-entry station and the at least one workpiece loading station.

Semiconductor manufacturing process module

A method is provided. The method includes disposing a plurality of robotic facilities to form a semiconductor handling system, controlling the semiconductor handling system with a controller to handoff a workpiece between neighboring robotic facilities, and providing a software interface for the controller, wherein the software interface permits a user to view alternate configurations of the handling system in order to optimize a characteristic of the handling system.

Semiconductor manufacturing process modules

A variety of process modules are described for use in semiconductor manufacturing processes.

Semiconductor wafer handling and transport

A method is provided where the method includes configuring a plurality of robots so that a wafer can be handed off between neighboring robots, and disposing a plurality of sensors so that a robotic arm-relative position of a wafer that is transported by a robot is determined from sensor outputs by moving the wafer through a retract, rotate, and extend path.

A system for processing semiconductor wafers including a plurality of robotic facilities serially joined to each other to form a substantially linear transport chamber through which wafers can be transferred from each facility, wherein the substantially linear transport chamber is sealed to hold a controlled atmosphere and each of the plurality of robotic facilities includes at least one scara robot having three arm links serially coupled to one another and having a substrate holder rotatably coupled at a distal end of the three arm links, the plurality of robot facilities being configured to effect the transfer of wafers through the substantially linear transport chamber via handoff a wafer between neighboring scara robots, and a multi-entry process module coupled to at least one of the plurality of robotic facilities, where each entry of the multi-entry process module is accessed by the at least one of the at least one scara robot.

Wafer center finding with a Kalman filter

A device for handling a substantially circular wafer is provided. The device includes an interior accessible through a plurality of entrances, and a plurality of sensors consisting of two sensors for each one of the plurality of entrances, each sensor capable of detecting a presence of the substantially circular wafer, at a predetermined location within the interior, wherein the plurality of sensors are arranged so that at least two of the plurality of sensors detect the wafer for any position of the wafer entirely within the interior, wherein a first one of the two sensors is positioned to detect the wafer when the wafer has passed entirely into the interior through one of the plurality of entrances, and a second one of the two sensors is positioned immediately outside a diameter of the wafer when the wafer has passed entirely into the interior through one of the plurality of entrances.

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Carlisle, MA, United States of America

Christopher C Kiley