Applied Materials, Inc.

Lance S Reinke

Dan Maydan

Robert B Lowrance

Sasson Roger Somekh

David K Cheng

Richard A Seilheimer

J Christopher Moran

Charles Ryan-Harris

Edward M Abolnikov

Richard M Catlin, Jr

Gregory W Ridgeway

Michael Robert Rice

Lloyd M Berken

John Stanley Booth

Richard Giljum

Frederik W Freerks

M Uenia Crithfield

David Schott

Michael Holtzman

William Reams

Glenn Lattig

An apparatus and method for installing a plurality of facilities conduits in a wafer fabrication facility for subsequent coupling to a wafer-processing tool. The apparatus comprises a facilities integration plate and a gauge fixture removably inserted within the facilities integration plate. The method comprises the steps of determining a location where the wafer-processing tool is positioned in the wafer fabrication facility, forming a cutout in a floor of the fabrication facility, and providing the plurality of facilities conduits through the cutout in the floor. The facilities integration plate is mounted within the cutout in the floor, and the gauge fixture is disposed within the facilities integration plate. The facilities conduits are sized to a length defined by the gauge fixture and the wafer-processing tool is coupled to the plurality of facilities conduits.

Semiconductor substrate processing tool and fabrications facilities integration plate

A wafer position error detection and correction system determines the presence of a wafer on a wafer transport robot blade. The system also determines a wafer position error by monitoring the position of the wafer with respect to the blade with one sensor which is located proximate to each entrance of a process chamber. When a wafer position error is detected, the system determines the extent of the misalignment and corrects such misalignment if correctable by the wafer transport robot or alerts an operator for operator intervention. The system incorporates a transparent cover on the surface of the wafer handling chamber and four optical detection sensors disposed on the surface of the transparent cover, in which each sensor is placed proximate to the entrance of the process chamber. In addition, an I/O sensor is placed adjacent the I/O slit valve to detect and correct wafer position errors. The detection sensors direct light through the wafer handling chamber to reflectors on the floor of the transfer chamber which reflect the light back to the detector sensors. A detector within the detector sensor detects when the beam path from the position sensor to the reflector is uninterrupted. As a wafer is retracted out of a process chamber or a wafer cassette, the position of the wafer with respect to the blade is measured, thus determining whether the wafer is properly placed on the wafer.

Wafer position error detection and correction system

A wafer processing system includes an autoloader mounted within a load lock for providing batch, cassette-to-cassette automatic wafer transfer between the semiconductor processing chamber and cassette load and unload positions within the load lock. The system provides rapid, contamination-free loading and unloading of semiconductor wafers.

Semiconductor processing system with robotic autoloader and load lock

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Lance S Reinke