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:
Apr. 30, 2002
Filed:
Apr. 14, 2000
Martin R. Elliott, Round Rock, TX (US);
Jeffrey C. Hudgens, San Francisco, CA (US);
Chris Pencis, Austin, TX (US);
Damon Cox, Bastrop, TX (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus for processing semiconductor wafers has an automatic robot for independently and simultaneously handling two wafers (W) at the same time on two separate transfer planes. The robot comprises a first arm assembly having a left and a right arm each mounted at one end for independent rotation in a first horizontal plane about a center vertical axis, the other ends of the arms being movably joined together and holding a blade on which a wafer can be carried, the arms being horizontally bendable near their centers so they can be folded to retract the blade toward the center axis and rotated to a desired angular position, the arms being extendable along a radius from the center axis by moving the arms together near their centers to bring the arms nearly parallel to each other and to extend the blade from the center axis by a maximum amount; and a second arm assembly substantially identical to the first assembly and rotatable in a second horizontal plane closely spaced above the first plane, the operation of the second assembly being substantially identical to that of the first assembly but independent thereof.