Wafer handling system with bernoulli pick-up

Abstract

An improved wafer handling system including a pair of robot arms each having a drive apparatus operatively coupled to its rear end portion for extending, retracting, and rotatably positioning the robot arms. The opposite end of the robot arms are operatively connected to a pick-up wand. The pick-up wand includes a top plate and a bottom plate. The lower surface of the top plate has a plurality of commonly-connected grooves ground therein and a reservoir for supplying gas to said grooves from the forward end portion of the robot arms. A plurality of gas outlets are provided in the bottom plate, and the bottom surface of the top plate is positioned securely over and flush against the top surface of the bottom plate such that at least one of the grooves are over each of the plurality of gas outlets for delivering gas thereto. The outlets are slanted for substantially radially outwardly directing a flow of gas away from the pattern and over the top surface of the water for creating an area of relatively low pressure between the bottom surface of the lower pick-up plate and the top surface of the wafer (with respect to the pressure existing beneath the wafer) for picking up or lifting the wafer without physical contact between the wafer and the wand in the actual pick-up by utilizing Bernoulli's Principle.