Applied Materials, Inc.

Sokudo Co., Ltd.

Applied Material, Inc.

Applied Matrials, Inc.

Jeffrey C Hudgens

Michael Robert Rice

Eric Andrew Englhardt

Robert B Lowrance

Martin R Elliott

William Tyler Weaver

Charles T Carlson

Damon Keith Cox

Vinay K Shah

Leon Volfovski

Izya Kremerman

Dean C Hruzek

Nir Merry

Mohsen Salek

Kirk Van Katwyk

Tetsuya Ishikawa

Jay D Pinson, Ii

Helen R Armer

Harald Herchen

David H Quach

Michael C Kuchar

Chongyang Wang

Rick J Roberts

Karuppasamy Muthukamatchi

John A Backer

Van Hoskins

Mike Rice

Matvey Farber

Brian C Lue

Alexander Berger

Jeffrey Allen Brodine

Rajkumar Thanu

Marvin L Freeman

Helder T Lee

Nicholas Michael Kopec

Jason M Schaller

Jacob Newman

Sushant Suresh Koshti

Andrew J Constant

Dave Silvetti

Todd J Egan

Paul Benjamin Reuter

Steven Victor Sansoni

Steven E Babayan

Douglas R McAllister

Andreas Schmid

Amitabh Puri

Tony Ray Kroeker

Nicholas Michael Bergantz

Ayan Majumdar

Edward Ng

Alex Berger

Penchala N Kankanala

Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez

Robert Brent Vopat

Paul Zachary Wirth

Dmitry A Dzilno

Denis M Koosau

Song-Moon Suh

John Joseph Mazzocco

Travis Morey

Shay Assaf

Mario David Silvetti

Malcolm N Daniel, Jr

Yuanhong Guo

William P Laceky

Dinesh Kanawade

Yuji Murayama

Marek W Radko

Sheng Michael Guo

Douglas MacLeod

Pingping Gou

Michael Xiaoxuan Yang

James S Papanu

Benjamin B Riordon

Yogananda Sarode Vishwanath

Satish Sundar

Edward W Budiarto

Tzu-Fang Huang

Mario Dave Silvetti

Sudhir R Gondhalekar

Jagan Rangarajan

Alpay Yilmaz

Devendra Channappa Holeyannavar

Karthik Balakrishnan

Igor G Kogan

Michael Teferra

Paul Forderhase

Victor Belitsky

Gary Wyka

Steve S Hongkham

William Nixon Taylor, Jr

Ingrid B Peterson

Richard Giljum

Alex Minkovich

Frederik W Freerks

Tim Leong

Todd J Brill

Wyland L Atkins

Shivaraj Manjunath Nara

A system includes a factory interface, a load port connected to the factory interface, and a system controller. The system controller is to, responsive to detecting that a container is received at the load port, determine a type of parts for storage at the container. One or more mapping patterns associated with the determined type of parts is identified. A detection system of robot arm(s) of the factory interface is moved according to the identified mapping pattern(s) to detect one or more parts stored by the container. A mapping of the container is determined based on the movement of the robot arm(s). The mapping indicates regions of the container that stores detected parts and a position of each of the detected parts. Based on the mapping, the robot arm(s) either remove a detected part form the container or place an additional part in the container.

Methods and systems for temperature control for a substrate

Disclosed herein are systems and methods relating to a transfer chamber for an electronic device processing system. The transfer chamber can include a first magnetic levitation track having a face-up orientation and a second magnetic levitation track spaced from the first magnetic levitation track and having a face-down orientation. The system can include substrate carriers that move along the first and second magnetic levitation tracks where each substrate carrier includes a magnet on a bottom portion to interact with a first magnetic field and a second magnet on a top portion to interact with a second magnetic field. The system also can include at least one lift pin assembly to move the substrate carriers in a vertical direction between the first and second magnetic levitation tracks.

Substrate transfer systems and methods of use thereof

Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate are provided herein. For example, an apparatus for processing a substrate comprises a transfer robot configured to position a substrate on a substrate support disposed within an interior of a processing chamber configured to process the substrate and a sensor disposed on the transfer robot, operably connected to a controller of the processing chamber, and configured with an angle of view to provide in-situ continuous closed loop feedback relating to spatial information of the interior of the processing chamber to the controller.

Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate

An electronic device manufacturing system includes a mainframe including a transfer chamber and facets defining side walls of the transfer chamber. The facets include first facet, second facet, third facet, and fourth facet that form the transfer chamber. The first facet has a first number of substrate access ports. The second facet has a second number of substrate access ports. A first substrate access port of the first facet has a first side dimension and a second substrate access port of the second facet has a second side dimension that is different from the first side dimension. The second facet is adjacent to the first facet. The third facet is adjacent to the second facet. The fourth facet has the second number of substrate access ports. The second number of substrate access ports is different than the first number of substrate access ports.

Electronic device manufacturing system

Electronic device manufacturing systems, robot apparatus and associated methods are described. The robot apparatus includes an arm having an inboard end and an outboard end, the inboard end is configured to rotate about a shoulder axis; a first forearm is configured for independent rotation relative to the arm about an elbow axis at the outboard end of the arm; a first wrist member is configured for independent rotation relative the first forearm about a first wrist axis at a distal end of the first forearm opposite the elbow axis, wherein the first wrist member includes a first end effector and a second end effector. The robot apparatus further includes a second forearm configured for independent rotation relative to the arm about the elbow axis; a second wrist member configured for independent rotation relative the second forearm about a second wrist axis, wherein the second wrist member comprises a third end effector and a fourth end effector. The robot apparatus further includes a third forearm configured for independent rotation relative to the arm about the elbow axis; and a third wrist member configured for independent rotation relative the third forearm about a third wrist axis, wherein the third wrist member includes a fifth end effector and a sixth end effector.

Robot apparatus, systems, and methods for transporting substrates in electronic device manufacturing

The disclosure describes devices, systems and methods relating to a transfer chamber for an electronic device processing system. For example, a method includes causing a robot arm to pick up a substrate. The robot arm is caused to pick up the substrate by causing a first mover to rotate or to change a first distance to a second mover. Rotation of the first mover or the change in the first distance causes the first robot arm to rotate about a shoulder axis. The robot arm is further caused to pick up the substrate by causing one of a) a second mover to rotate or b) a third mover to change a second distance to the second mover. Rotation of the second mover or the change in the second distance causes the robot arm to raise or lower.

Substrate transfer devices, systems and methods of use thereof

A robot apparatus is configured to extend a first end effector into a first process chamber and extend a second end effector into a second process chamber. The first process chamber and the second process chamber are separated by a first pitch. The robot apparatus is further configured to retract the first end effector and the second end effector into a rectangular mainframe while maintaining a distance between the substrates bounded by the first pitch throughout a retraction process, and fold the first end effector and the second end effector inward within a sweep diameter defined by a width of the rectangular mainframe.

Operations of robot apparatuses within rectangular mainframes

The disclosure describes devices and systems for a color-changing torque seal. A system includes multiple electrical connections. Each electrical connection of the multiple electrical connections includes a first electrical connector and a second electrical connector that contacts the first electrical connector. Each electrical connection further includes a color-changing torque seal disposed on the first electrical connector and the second electrical connector. The color-changing torque seal is configured to change color responsive to a temperature change of one or more of the first electrical connector or the second electrical connector.

Color-changing torque seal for electrical connections

A process kit enclosure system includes surfaces to enclose an interior volume, a first support structure including first fins, a second support structure including second fins, and a front interface to interface the process kit enclosure system with a load port of a wafer processing system. The first and second fins are sized and spaced to hold process kit ring carriers and process kit rings in the interior volume. Each of the process kit rings is secured to one of the process kit ring carriers. The process kit enclosure system enables first automated transfer of a first process kit ring carrier securing a first process kit ring from the process kit enclosure system into the wafer processing system and second automated transfer of a second process kit ring carrier securing a second process kit ring from the wafer processing system into the process kit enclosure system.

Process kit enclosure system

Disclosed herein are systems and methods relating to a transfer chamber for an electronic device processing system. The transfer chamber includes a magnetic levitation platform, having a magnetic levitation track disposed along a length of the transfer chamber and configured to generate a magnetic field above the track. The transfer chamber also includes a magnetic levitation track disposed along a width of the transfer chamber such that a plane of this lateral track crosses a plane of the longitudinal track at a junction. The lateral track is configured to generate a magnetic field above or below the track. The platform further includes at least one substrate carrier configured to move along the longitudinal track and the lateral track. The substrate carrier also is configured to rotate at the junction.

An autoteach system includes an autoteach pin that is a scannable feature having a fixed position within the autoteach system. The autoteach pin enables an autoteach operation of a robot arm of the wafer processing system. The autoteach operation is an operation to automatically teach the fixed position within the autoteach system to the robot arm of the wafer processing system. The autoteach pin includes a first portion including a cylindrical sidewall. The robot arm is to use the first portion to locate the fixed position within the autoteach system. The autoteach portion further includes a second portion including planar sidewalls that are configured to enable calibration of robot arm error.

Autoteach system

A system includes a factory interface, a load port connected to the factory interface, a container connected to the load port, and a controller connected to a robot arm of the factory interface. The controller determines that the container is configured to store replacement parts for a process chamber of the system and causes the robot arm to move according to a first mapping pattern to identify, using a detection system at a distal end of an end effector of the robot arm, positions in the container. Regions of the container that do not contain replacement parts are determined and the robot arm is moved according to a second mapping pattern to identify a position in the container of a wafer and/or an empty carrier for a replacement part. A mapping of positions of replacement parts and positions of the wafer and/or empty carrier is recorded in a storage medium.

Mapping of a replacement parts storage container

A method includes machining a raw surface of a metal component to remove first native oxide from a metal base of the metal component to generate an as-machined surface of the metal component. A second native oxide is formed on the metal base of the as-machined surface of the metal component subsequent to the machining. The method further includes, subsequent to the machining, performing operations to generate a finished surface of the metal component. The operations include a surface machining of the as-machined surface of the metal component to remove the second native oxide.

Organic contamination free surface machining

Embodiments herein relate to a transport system and a substrate processing and transfer (SPT) system. The SPT system includes a transport system that connects two processing tools. The transport system includes a vacuum tunnel that is configured to transport substrates between the processing tools. The vacuum tunnel includes a substrate transport carriage to move the substrate through the vacuum tunnel. The SPT system has a variety of configurations that allow the user to add or remove processing chambers, depending on the process chambers required for a desired substrate processing procedure.

Transport system

A robot apparatus may include an upper arm adapted to rotate about a first rotational axis and a forearm rotatably coupled to the upper arm at a second rotational axis. A first wrist member may be rotatably coupled to the forearm at a third rotation axis. A second wrist member may be rotatably coupled to the forearm at the third rotation axis. A first end effector may be coupled to the first wrist member and a second end effector may be coupled to the second wrist member. The first wrist member and the second wrist member may be configured to rotate about the third rotational axis between a first pitch and a second pitch as a function of extension of the robot apparatus. Other apparatus and methods are disclosed.

Robot apparatus including dual end effectors with variable pitch and methods

Growing community of inventors

San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Jeffrey C Hudgens