Kabushiki Kaisha Yaskawa Denki

Takayuki Imanaka

Yuji Arinaga

Shinichi Katsuda

Masamichi Inenaga

Masaaki Hara

Mitsuyoshi Nakano

Ryuta Kagawa

Koji Suzuki

Satoshi Murakami

Yoshiaki Miyazono

In a positioner according to the present invention, the rotating table and a hollow shaft is rotated by a motor via a speed reduction gear. In such a configuration, an air tube and a cable which supplies the air or electric power used to operate a jib on the rotating table are provided via the rotary joint arranged at one end of the shaft. A communication device may be provided on the rotating table by detaching the rotary joint and arranging a composite curl cord. The communication device may be provided by the rotary joint and a wireless communication device without using the composite curl cord.

Positioner and composite curl cord

A robot includes a work tool, an arm, a cable, and a third member. The work tool is configured to perform a predetermined work with respect to a workpiece. The work tool is attached to the wrist. The arm supports the wrist and is rotatable around a rotational axis. The arm includes first and second members which are provided substantially in parallel to each other in a longitudinal direction of the arm to form a space between the first and second members. The cable extends through the space and is connected to the work tool. The third member connects the first and second members.

Robot

A prealignment sensor comprising a frame fixed to a base and having a U-shape when viewed from its side. A light source is attached to a lower part of the flame. A convex lens is attached to a lower part of an inside of the frame by which diffused light of the light source is transformed into parallel light. A lens holder is provided for fixing the convex lens to the frame. An optical receiver is attached to an upper part of an inside of the frame by which the parallel light is received and is transformed into an electrical signal. A signal processing circuit is attached to the frame by which the electric signal is transformed into a desired displacement magnitude. The frame is formed of aluminum subjected to sulfuric-acid hard alumite treatment and then to steam sealing.

Techniques for wafer prealignment and sensing edge position

A wafer prealignment apparatus comprising a CCD linear sensor and a wafer prealignment method which facilitate the sensing of wafer presence, improvement in precision of position sensing, and edge sensing adapted to the material of the wafer even of the material is transparent or not. A photodiode () is provided in a vicinity of the first pixel from the center shaft of the wafer rotation means of a CCD linear sensor () to detect a wafer () on the basis of the luminous energy value. The time from the issuance of a measurement command to the sensor () to that of an ROG signal for transmitting the detection timing of the sensor () is measured to correct the angular error of a measurement position due to the rotation during this measurement. For sensing an edge position of the wafer (), the scan start point of the sensor () is set on the opposite side of the center shaft of the wafer rotation means. When the wafer is transparent a sense signal is binarized to set its change point as the edge position. When the wafer is not transparent, information on a position lastly sensed as an edge is judged to be correct so that a particle may not be misrecognized as the edge.

Techniques for wafer prealignment and sensing edge positions

A two-dimensional absolute position sensor comprises at least one magnetic slit thin plate provided to an end-effector which is attached to the end of a robot arm and moves in a plane, and having slits extending in the X and Y directions, magnetic sensor heads having magnetic sensors for position measurement in the X and Y directions opposed to the magnetic slit thin plate through a gap therebetween and bias magnets for applying magnetic fields to the magnetic sensors, and a signal processing circuit for outputting an absolute position signal generated from signals outputted from the magnetic sensors. Therefore, a small-sized, light-weighted two-dimensional absolute position sensor with an excellent environment-resistance used for readily measuring the two-dimensional absolute position of the end-effector of a robot in a non-contact manner can be provided.

Growing community of inventors

Fukuoka, Japan

Takayuki Imanaka