Asyst Technologies, Inc.

Other

Crossing Automation, Inc.

Raymond S Martin

William John Fosnight

Anthony C Bonora

Michael Krolak

Joshua T Oen

Robert P Wartenbergh

Joshua W Shenk

Perry Alan Peterson

Robert R Netsch

Bruce C Rhine

Jay Tatro

Terry Mosier

A semiconductor substrate is provided. The substrate includes a first surface and an opposing second surface, wherein the first surface includes a marking in a centroid region of the first surface. The marking indicates a location of a center point on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate or identification data unique to the substrate. A system, methods of transporting and marking, and a device for reading the substrate markings are also provided.

Method and apparatus for wafer marking

An I/O minienvirornent including a port door within an I/O port, and a system for removing the port door and pod door coupled thereto, and setting down the pod and port doors at a convenient location within the I/O minienvironment. After wafer processing has been completed and the wafers have been transferred back through the I/O port to the SMEF pod, the system may retrieve the port and pod doors, and return the port door to their sealing positions within the I/O port and cassette, respectively. In a preferred embodiment, the system for gripping and transporting the port and pod doors may be located on the back end of the end effector of the wafer handling robot within the I/O minienvironment. The back end of the end effector is the end of the end effector opposite that used to transport the wafers and/or cassette.

Port door removal and wafer handling robotic system

A load port assembly capable of monitoring a plurality of performance characteristics of wafer carriers. The load port assembly may include one or more of the following monitoring systems: a torque measurement system, a wafer height measurement system, a carrier identification reader, an information pad, a resistivity measurement system, a cleanliness measurement system, a seal performance detector, and a relative humidity detector. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, each of the monitoring systems are integrated into either a carrier advance plate or a port door of the load port assembly.

Smart load port with integrated carrier monitoring and fab-wide carrier management system

A storage, delivery and retrieval system having a rear wall to which is affixed a plurality of shelves capable of supporting one or more wafer-carrying pods. The structure further includes a pair of vertical rails lying in a plane spaced from and substantially parallel to the shelf-supporting wall. The horizontal rail extends between and is translationally mounted to the vertical rails, which horizontal rail supports a gripper capable of movement along the horizontal rail. The movement of the horizontal rail along the vertical rails, and the movement of the gripper along the horizontal rail, allows the gripper to be positioned at any location within an X-Z plane including the storage shelves. The system includes a two-dimensional transport system. That is, all transport of the pods by the system occurs without the pods ever leaving the X-Z plane of the shelves. This feature contributes to the overall small footprint of the system. Additionally, the gripper moves around in the same plane as the pods, and the rails have a small profile and operate directly adjacent the storage shelves. These features further contribute to the storage, delivery and retrieval system according to the present invention.

SMIF pod storage, delivery and retrieval system

A SMIF pod capable of supporting a cassette at points in the pod located directly over or near a kinematic coupling between the pod and a surface on which the pod is supported. Even if the pod shell warps or otherwise deforms, the three points of contact between the pod and the support surface at the kinematic couplings will always remain at a fixed, controllable and repeatable position. The present invention makes use of this fact by supporting the cassette at or near the three kinematic coupling points. Moreover, the support structure is not affixed to the top or sides of the pod shell. Thus, the position of the cassette, and wafers supported therein, will similarly remain at a fixed, controllable and repeatable position, substantially unaffected by any pod shell deformation which may occur.

SMIF pod including independently supported wafer cassette

A system is described herein including a load port which allows various pod sizes, including 200 mm and 300 mm, add various configurations, including front opening and bottom opening, to operate with a BOLTS interface, or simply with a vertical port on the front end of a process tool in configurations not including the BOLTS interface.

Ergonomic, variable size, bottom opening system compatible with a vertical interface

A reticle support mechanism is disclosed in which a reticle may be quickly and easily located and removed, and which is capable of securely supporting a reticle for storage and/or transport. A preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a pair of reticle supports mounted to a door of a container, and a pair of reticle retainers mounted to a shell of the container. When the container shell is coupled with the container door, sections of the reticle support and reticle retainer engage chamfered edges of the reticle and sandwich the reticle in a secure position within the container. As a result of engaging the reticle at its chamfered edges, potentially harmful contact with the upper and lower surfaces and vertical edges of the reticle is avoided.

SMIF container including a reticle support structure

A system for providing uniform, controlled and efficient purge gas flow rates and gas flow patterns for removing contaminants and/or particulates from wafers within a pod. The purge system includes seals at the interfaces between the gas inlet and removal lines to substantially prevent leakage at the interfaces. The system may establish seals at the inlet and outlet without having to use conventional fluid flow pins extending above the support surface. The negative pressure applied at the outlet controls the flow rate through the pod, and the rate at which gas leaves the pod will limit the rate at which gas may enter the pod. In a preferred embodiment, the inlet flow is approximately equal to the outlet flow. With substantially equal inlet and outlet pressures, the purging gas flows through the upper and lower portions of the pod in a substantially uniform flow pattern so that contaminants and particulates are removed evenly from wafers throughout the pod. As an alternative to the normal purge and/or trickle modes of operation, the system may remove a volume of gas from a pod and replace it with a new volume of gas by operating the low pressure source with the high pressure source turned off. Further still, the flow lines may include flow rate control systems that provide purging flow for a predetermined time interval, and thereafter provide a trickle flow as long as the pod is seated on the support surface.

Evacuation-driven SMIF pod purge system

A rotating and translating support assembly for receiving a front-opening pod according to applicable SEMI standards, and thereafter rotating the pod to a desired orientation. In this way, a number of pods may be received at interface ports of a minienvironment, and each of the pods and ports may be angled toward and aligned with a single, 2-arm pick and place robot. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the rotating and translating support assembly comprises a plate rotationally and translationally mounted on a shelf extending from the minienvironment adjacent to a front-opening interface port. In one embodiment, the support plate may be mounted on a shaft attached to a rotating assembly, such as for example a worm and drive gear. The rotating assembly may in turn be mounted on a translating assembly, such as for example a carriage riding on a lead screw. The rotating and translating assemblies may be controlled by a host computer, so as to rotate and translate a pod received on the support plate, to align the pod with an interface port which may be provided at an angle with respect to the front of the minienvironment.

Rotated, orthogonal load compatible front-opening interface

An adaptor plate for allowing 200 mm SMIF pods carrying one or more semiconductor wafers to be used on an access port of a wafer processing station configured to accept a 300 mm SMIF pod. The adaptor plate has a substantially circular outer circumference conforming substantially in size and shape to the outer circumference of a conventional 300 mm SMIF pod, and a central opening conforming substantially in size and shape to a conventional rectangular 200 mm SMIF pod. The one or more semiconductor wafers are supported on pod door of the pod, and the semiconductor wafers and pod door are lowered through the central opening in the adaptor plate into the wafer processing station. With the adaptor plate supported on the access port, and a cover of the 200 mm SMIF pod supported around the central opening, the access port is entirely covered and entry of contaminants into the processing station through the access port is prevented.

SMIF port interface adaptor

A device for carrying shuffleboard pucks and similar disc-shaped objects comprising a fixed strip member and a laterally movable strip member held in a common plane by a supporting frame to define a support surface. A plurality of lugs are disposed on both strip members to retain shuffleboard pucks on the aforesaid surface of the carrying device in a planar configuration upon the laterally movable strip member being drawn toward and held in close proximity to the fixed strip member.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Raymond S Martin