The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 10, 1991
Filed:
Dec. 24, 1990
Steven Murdoch, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus is disclosed for handling semiconductor wafers used for the production of integrated circuit structures which permits moving the wafer from one processing station to another without direct handling of the wafer and which also permits equal processing of both the top and bottom surfaces of the wafer. A wafer retaining ring is disclosed having structure for engaging the retaining ring to transfer the wafer and the retaining ring from one processing station to another to perform a plurality of processing steps on one or both surfaces of the wafer without direct handling of the wafer. The retaining ring is also provided with structure for engaging the end edges of the wafer leaving both the top and bottom surfaces of the wafer equally exposed for processing. The retaining ring has an inner diameter sufficiently large with respect to the outer diameter of the wafer so as to not interfere with processing by shadowing either side of the wafer.