Novellus Systems Incorporated

Lam Research Corporation

Wayne Tang

Rich Blank

Damon Tyrone Genetti

Ye Feng

Paul Franzen

Yassine Kabouzi

Peter S Thaulad

Rajan Arora

Kevin Bertsch

Jim Roberts

Michael Bergeson

Ken Reynolds

Mikhail Bojinov

Stephan Minard

Michael Souza

In some examples, a wafer bow measurement system comprises a measurement unit including: a wafer support assembly to impart rotational movement to a measured wafer supported in the measurement unit; an optical sensor; a calibration standard to calibrate the optical sensor; a linear stage actuator to impart linear direction of movement to the optical sensor; a wafer centering sensor to determine a centering of the measured wafer supported in the measurement unit; and a wafer alignment sensor to determine an alignment of the measured wafer supported in the measurement unit.

Integrated wafer bow measurements

Rotational hardstop assemblies that provide greater than 360 degrees of non-continuous rotation for rotating mechanisms are provided. In certain embodiments, an assembly is used to provide 630 or more degrees of rotation for the shoulder axis of a robot, such as a wafer transfer robot. The rotational hardstop assemblies include opposing magnets as springs. According to various embodiments, the opposing magnets provide non-contact engagement and produce no contact noise nor have any wear over time. The rotational hardstop assemblies provide the ability to location from either direction of rotation of a robot cylindrical coordinate system.

Magnetic rotational hardstop for robot

A work piece handling apparatus moves workpieces with a plurality of independently movable load cups that have combined multiple axes of motion. The apparatus can load and unload work pieces from a wet process station and move work pieces between wet process stations and maintain wet chemistry delivery to the workpiece without involving a robot. A method of work piece handling using the apparatus provides a significant throughput improvement by reducing the inherent time lag of pneumatic systems and eliminating multiple steps involving the robot during inter-station wafer transfer.

High throughput servo load cup with integrated wet chemistry delivery

In one embodiment, a wafer-handling robot in a wafer processing system is automatically calibrated by determining an orientation of the robot relative to a chassis of the wafer processing system, determining hand-off coordinates of a load port in the wafer processing system, and determining hand-off coordinates of a load lock in the wafer processing system. Also disclosed is a calibration fixture for automatically calibrating the wafer-handling robot to the load port.

Automatic calibration of a wafer-handling robot

Growing community of inventors

Union City, CA, United States of America

Wayne Tang