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:
Oct. 02, 2001
Filed:
Sep. 28, 1998
Anthony C. Bonora, Menlo Park, CA (US);
William J. Fosnight, Austin, TX (US);
Krishna D. Swamy, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Mark R. Davis, Mountain View, CA (US);
Mike Cookson, San Jose, CA (US);
Asyst Technologies, Inc., Fremont, CA (US);
Abstract
A system for positioning an end effector of a wafer handling robot with respect to a wafer to be extracted from a cassette, and for thereafter reading an indicial mark on the wafer. The system includes a pair of sensor units fixedly mounted on the end effector, which sensor units are capable of detecting the wafer edge upon approach of the end effector toward the wafer. Based on the positions of the end effector when the first and then the second sensor units detect the edge of the wafer, a computer may determine the orientation of the end effector with respect to the wafer, and adjust a position of the end effector to a center of the wafer. Thereafter, the indicial mark on the wafer may be read by a camera by withdrawing the wafer from the cassette on the end effector, positioning the center of the wafer over the central axis of rotation of the wafer handling robot, and rotating the robot until the indicial mark is located under the camera.