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:
Feb. 26, 2002
Filed:
Apr. 19, 1999
Applicant:
Inventors:
Robert J. C. Mitchell, West Sussex, GB;
Keith D. Relleen, West Sussex, GB;
John Ruffell, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Assignee:
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B65G 4/907 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
B65G 4/907 ;
Abstract
An apparatus for processing wafers one at a time. The apparatus has a vacuum chamber into which wafers are loaded through a pair of loadlocks which are spaced one above the other. A robot within the vacuum chamber has a pair of gripper arms which are moveable along and rotatable about a vertical axis so as to be moveable between the loadlocks and a wafer processing position. Each of the loadlocks has a vertically moveable portion which is moveable away from the remainder of the loadlock to provide access in a horizontal plane for one of the gripper arms