Murata Machinery, Ltd.

Brooks Automation Gmbh

Pri Automation, Inc.

Thomas R Mariano

Robert P Sullivan

Brian Doherty

Robert Gaskins

Mary Ellen Sparrow

Oren Wiesler

Jing Wen Liu

David Levassuer

Timothy A McCabe

Namdar Bahri

Carl Johnson

Ted Schnackertz

An overhead hoist transport vehicle comprising: an overhead hoist; a translating stage; and a gripper coupled to the translating stage, the gripper being configured to grip a material unit; wherein the overhead hoist is configured to transport the material unit to one of a load port and a storage location by performing operations comprising: the overhead hoist being configured to vertically move the gripper to the load port and the storage location; and the translating stage being configured to horizontally move the overhead hoist to the load port and the storage location; and wherein the load port is beneath an overhead rail; and wherein at least a portion of the storage location is disposed lateral to the overhead rail.

Automated material handling system for semiconductor manufacturing based on a combination of vertical carousels and overhead hoists

A highly efficient Automated Material Handling System (AMHS) that allows an overhead hoist transport vehicle to load and unload Work-In-Process (WIP) parts directly to/from one or more WIP storage units included in the system. The AMHS includes an overhead hoist transport subsystem and at least one vertical carousel stocker having a plurality of storage bins. The overhead hoist transport subsystem includes an overhead hoist transport vehicle traveling along a suspended track defining a predetermined route, which runs adjacent to the carousel stocker, thereby allowing the overhead hoist transport vehicle to access a WIP part directly from one of the storage bins. At least one of the storage bins includes a movable shelf operative to move laterally from a first position along the carousel path to a second position near the overhead hoist transport vehicle.

A highly efficient Automated Material Handling System (AMHS) that allows an overhead hoist transport vehicle to load and unload Work-In-Process (WIP) parts directly to/from one or more WIP storage units included in the system. The AMHS includes an overhead hoist transport subsystem and at least one vertical carousel stocker having a plurality of storage bins. The overhead hoist transport subsystem includes an overhead hoist transport vehicle traveling along a suspended track defining a predetermined route, which runs adjacent to the carousel stocker, thereby allowing the overhead hoist transport vehicle to access a WIP part directly from one of the storage bins. At least one of the storage bins includes a movable shelf operative to move laterally from a first position along the carousel path to a second position near the overhead hoist transport vehicle. The storage unit is at least partially open to allow the movable shelf to move to the second position, thereby allowing the overhead hoist to access a material unit directly from the movable shelf for subsequent transport along the track between various locations within a product manufacturing facility.

A highly efficient Automated Material Handling System (AMHS) that allows an overhead hoist transport vehicle to load and unload Work-In-Process (WIP) parts directly to/from one or more WIP storage units included in the system. The overhead hoist transport subsystem includes an overhead hoist transport vehicle traveling along a suspended track defining a predetermined route.

An Automated Material Handling System (AMHS) that allows an overhead hoist transport vehicle to load and unload Work-In-Process (WIP) parts directly to/from WIP storage units included in the system. The AMHS includes an overhead hoist transport subsystem and a vertical carousel stocker having a plurality of storage bins. The subsystem includes an overhead hoist transport vehicle traveling along a suspended track defining a predetermined route running adjacent to the stocker, allowing the vehicle to access a WIP part directly from a storage bin. At least one storage bin includes a movable shelf operative to move laterally from a first position along the carousel path to a second position near the vehicle. The storage unit is partially open to allow the movable shelf to move to the second position, allowing the hoist to access a material unit directly from the shelf for subsequent transport along the track.

An Automated Material Handling System (AMHS) that allows an overhead hoist transport vehicle to load/ unload parts directly to/from storage units included in the system. The AMHS includes an overhead hoist transport subsystem and a vertical carousel stocker having a plurality of storage bins. The subsystem includes an overhead hoist transport vehicle traveling along a suspended track defining a predetermined route. The route passes over the stocker, which allows the vehicle to access parts directly from one of the storage bins. The selected bin is positioned at the top of the stocker underneath the track. Next, the vehicle is moved along the track to a position above the selected bin. The hoist is then lowered parallel to the longitudinal axis of the stocker toward the selected bin. Finally, the hoist is operated to pick parts directly from the bin, or to place parts in the bin.

A reticle management system is disclosed that provides data storage and retrieval of data associated with each reticle, reticle carrier, and certain system attributes and also for the efficient movement and storage of reticles and reticle carriers. The reticle management system includes a reticle management controller, a central reticle database, and one or more reticle stockers that include a stocker controller, a stocker database, and a stocker unit. The reticle management controller is coupled to the central reticle database and each of the stocker controllers. Each stocker controller collects data on the reticles, reticle carriers, or both, that are stored within the associated stocker unit and stores this data in the stocker database. The reticle management controller retrieves the data in each stocker database via the associated stocker controller and stores this data in central reticle database. In addition, data attributes for the system, and the reticle carriers within the system may also be stored in the central reticle database.

Reticle management system

A method for installing an automated material handling system in a semiconductor fabrication facility capable of accommodating a predetermined number of fabrication bays. The handling system has a set of elements including material storage, interbay transport, and intrabay transport elements corresponding to the predetermined number of fabrication bays. The method comprises arranging at least some of the material storage, interbay transport and intrabay transport elements into handling system subsets, and installing one or more of the subsets into the fabrication facility. Each subset has at least one or more corresponding ones of the material storage, interbay transport and intrabay transport elements so that when installed each subset forms a transport circuit allowing substantially unrestricted bi-directional travel of semiconductor device holders between the material storage and at least one of the fabrication bays. The installation of one or more of the subsets into the fabrication facility is accomplished before installation of any element other of the handling system subsets.

Growth model automated material handling system

A traffic management system for an automatic material handling system (AMHS) divides time into a series of discrete time periods and analyzes a plurality of move requests that are to be executed within a particular time period is disclosed. The traffic management system receives a plurality of move requests from the AMHS and determines how many move requests are to be executed and selects which move requests in particular will be executed in the next time period. The traffic management system prioritizes the selected move requests by analyzing each source node and destination node contained in a move request in conjunction with other node traffic data. The traffic management system analyzes this data to ensure that a move request is not executed if a material transport vehicle would be dispatched to a node having a node traffic balance value that exceeds a predetermined value and a node traffic density value that exceeds a predetermined value.

Traffic management system and method for materials handling using traffic balancing and traffic density

A method and system is disclosed for dynamically routing a material transport vehicle using traffic based parameters. A controller directed to allocate a material transport vehicle to a particular node, selects the material transport vehicle that is physically closest to the particular node. The controller calculates an optimal route by identifying the possible routes between the initial node of the material transport vehicle and the destination node, and analyzing each of the nodes within each identified route according to a metric function by calculating a metric function value for each identified route. The controller then selects the route for the material transport vehicle having the smallest metric function value. The metric function may include parameters associated with each of the nodes in the material transport system including a node-to-node distance parameter, a node crossing parameter, and the number of material transport vehicles in a queue at each node within the route. In one embodiment, the metric function is given by

Growing community of inventors

Londonderry, NH, United States of America

Thomas R Mariano