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:
Mar. 09, 2004
Filed:
Oct. 04, 2000
Masahito Ozawa, Yamanashi-Ken, JP;
Masaki Narushima, Sakaigawa-Mura, JP;
Tokyo Electron Limited, Tokyo-to, JP;
Abstract
An alignment processing mechanism according to the present invention includes: a conveying mechanism for conveying a substrate W to be processed, an alignment mechanism for aligning the substrate W conveyed by the conveying mechanism to a predetermined direction, and a buffer mechanism for relaying the substrate W from the conveying mechanism to the alignment mechanism . The buffer mechanism is adapted to temporarily hold the substrate W conveyed by the conveying mechanism , and to pass the temporarily holding substrate W to the alignment mechanism based on a state of the alignment mechanism . According to the present invention, the alignment mechanism can be used with greater efficiency in order to achieve a high speed of an alignment process.