Asyst Technologies, Inc.

Edwin Noma

William John Fosnight

Anthony C Bonora

Joshua W Shenk

Robert R Netsch

Patrick Sullivan

An ergonomic loading assembly for an I/O port onto which a bare cassette may be easily loaded and unloaded. The loading assembly further provides isolation between the operator and the I/O port after loading of a cassette to minimize safety risks and to minimize the amount of particulates and contaminants around the workpieces while on the port. In a preferred embodiment, the loading assembly includes a cover assembly having a stationary cover section around the port plate, and two pivoting cover sections which open and close like jaws to allow a cassette to positioned within the cover assembly when opened and which enclose the cassette within the cover assembly when closed. The loading assembly further includes a pivoting deck onto which the cassette is loaded when the pivoting cover sections are open. The deck receives the cassette with the workpieces oriented at or near vertical. Thereafter, as the pivoting cover sections are closed, the pivoting deck rotates the cassette and seats the cassette on the port door of the port with the workpieces positioned in a horizontal orientation. Thereafter, the port plate, pivoting deck and cassette may be transferred away from the port plate so that processing of the workpieces in the cassette by the processing tool may take place.

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Edwin Noma