Applied Materials, Inc.

Applied Material, Inc.

Jeff Hudgens

Rajkumar Thanu

Michael Robert Rice

Charles T Carlson

Jason M Schaller

Benjamin B Riordon

Prerna Sonthalia Goradia

Damon Keith Cox

Geetika Bajaj

David Fenwick

Luke W Bonecutter

Karuppasamy Muthukamatchi

Gary Wyka

Darshan Thakare

Gayatri Natu

Karuppasamy Muthukamatchy

Iraj Sadighi

XiaoMing He

Sanni Seppaelae

Arun Dhayalan

Jennifer Y Sun

Nir Merry

David T Blahnik

Jennifer Sun

Disclosed herein are multi-turn drive assemblies, systems and methods of use thereof. The multi-turn drive assemblies enable a robot link member to have a maximum rotation of at least 360 degrees about an axis. The multi-turn drive assemblies can be incorporated into a robot arm for enabling 360 degrees rotation of one or more link members about an axis. The robot arm may be located in a transfer chamber of an electronic device processing system. Also disclosed are methods of controlling the multi-turn drive assemblies and related robots.

Multi-turn drive assembly and systems and methods of use thereof

Exemplary substrate processing systems may include a transfer region housing defining a transfer region fluidly coupled with a plurality of processing regions. A sidewall of the transfer region housing may define a sealable access for providing and receiving substrates. The systems may include a plurality of substrate supports disposed within the transfer region. The systems may also include a transfer apparatus having a central hub including a first shaft and a second shaft counter-rotatable with the first shaft. The transfer apparatus may include an eccentric hub extending at least partially through the central hub, and which is radially offset from a central axis of the central hub. The transfer apparatus may also include an end effector coupled with the eccentric hub. The end effector may include a plurality of arms having a number of arms equal to the number of substrate supports of the plurality of substrate supports.

Robot for simultaneous substrate transfer

Disclosed in some embodiments is a chamber component (such as an end effector body) coated with an ultrathin electrically-dissipative material to provide a dissipative path from the coating to the ground. The coating may be deposited via a chemical precursor deposition to provide a uniform, conformal, and porosity free coating in a cost effective manner. In an embodiment wherein the chamber component comprises an end effector body, the end effector body may further comprise replaceable contact pads for supporting a substrate and the contact surface of the contact pads head may also be coated with an electrically-dissipative material.

Ultrathin conformal coatings for electrostatic dissipation in semiconductor process tools

Disclosed is a wafer processing system, a dual gate system, and methods for operating these systems. The dual gate system may have a shaft, a first gate and a second gate coupled to the shaft at opposite sides thereof, and an actuator coupled to the shaft. The actuator is configured to tilt together the shaft, the first gate, and the second gate to a first sealed gate position or to a second sealed gate position. The actuator can be operated using a pneumatic mechanism, an electro-magnetic mechanism, or a cam follower mechanism.

Dual actuating tilting slit valve

Exemplary substrate processing systems may include a transfer region housing defining a transfer region, and including substrate supports and a transfer apparatus. The transfer apparatus may include a central hub having a housing, and including a first shaft and a second shaft. The housing may be coupled with the second shaft, and may define an internal housing volume. The transfer apparatus may include a plurality of arms equal to a number of substrate supports of the plurality of substrate supports. Each arm of the plurality of arms may be coupled about an exterior of the housing. The transfer apparatus may include a plurality of arm hubs disposed within the internal housing volume. Each arm hub of the plurality of arm hubs may be coupled with an arm of the plurality of arms through the housing. The arm hubs may be coupled with the first shaft of the central hub.

A vision system and method for calibrating motion of a robot disposed in a processing system is provided. In one embodiment, a vision system for a processing system includes a camera and a calibration wafer that are positioned in a processing system. The camera is positioned on the robot and is adapted to obtain image data of the calibration wafer disposed in a predefined location within the processing system. The image data is utilized to calibrate the robots motion.

Vision system

Generally a method and apparatus for viewing images within a processing system is provided. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a plate having a camera, transmitter and battery coupled thereto. The plate is adapted to be transported about a semiconductor processing system by a substrate transfer robot thereby allowing images within the system to be viewed remotely from the system. The viewed images may be used for system inspection and calibration of robot position, among other uses.

Growing community of inventors

San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Jeff Hudgens