International Business Machines Corporation

Hermann E Nievergelt

Johannes Georg Bednorz

Wolfgang D Pohl

Gerd K Binnig

Heinrich Rohrer

Pierre L Gueret

Hanspeter Ott

Edmund Weibel

Martin A Lanz

Daniel F Widmer

A vacuum transfer device includes a central processing chamber and a plurality of additional chambers radially positioned around the central chamber and in vacuum-tight connection therewith. A rotatable coulisse arrangement in the central chamber is extendable so as to reach into the additional chambers when correctly aligned. The device can transfer objects among several work stations without intermediate venting and re-evacuation of the system of chambers.

Vacuum transfer device

The rotator comprises a piezoelectric bender (4) pivotally supported (2, 3) at one end and carrying a means for being clamped (6) to which a 'payload' (7) may be attached. The bender (4) has split electrodes to keep its ends parallel when energized. Normally engaging the means for being clamped (6) are clamping members (15, 17) attached to a pair of piezoelectric benders (10, 11) which are fixed in supports (12, 13) resting on a base plate (1). With the pair of benders (10, 11) energized, the means for being clamped (6) is released and energization of the central bender (4) results in the lifting of the payload (7) by one step. The means for being clamped (6) is then re-arrested and its pivot (2, 3) released by means of actuating the ends of bimorphs (10, 11) associated with clamping members 14 and 16 and the central bender (4) is permitted to stretch. The rotator is then prepared for the next step of rotation about the pivot (2). This embodiment permits rotation through about 15 degrees. Two further embodiments conceived for unlimited rotation are described.

Piezoelectric stepping rotator

The travelling support (1) comprises a piezo-electric plate (2) resting on three legs (6) whose bottom surface is insulated from the bench (8) on which the support is to travel, by a dielectric (7). The piezo-electric plate (2) can be caused to contract by means of an actuating voltage applied via sliders (9, 10) to top and bottom electrodes on the plate (2). By applying a voltage to the legs (6), these may be clamped selectively by electrostatic forces effective across the dielectric (7). Appropriate control of the actuating and clamping voltages causes the support (1) to either move in a linear or rotary fashion. The displacements the support can perform per step are in the nanometer range.

Piezo-electric travelling support

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Adliswil, Switzerland

Hermann E Nievergelt