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. 04, 2003
Filed:
Aug. 25, 2000
Applicant:
Inventors:
Woo Sik Yoo, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Kitaek Kang, Dublin, CA (US);
Assignee:
WaferMasters, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 7/00 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 7/00 ;
Abstract
A system and associated method for aligning semiconductor wafers and wafer-like objects relative to a transport mechanism. An image of, for example, a wafer is acquired, digitized, and stored in a computer as an array of pixels, each pixel representing a point on the image. Data points along the edge of the wafer are extracted and used to geometrically estimate the center of the wafer object. The estimated wafer center is then compared to the position of a predetermined reference position to determine an offset. Using this information, the wafer transport mechanism can then be re-adjusted to pick up the wafer on the corrected center.