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. 21, 2009
Filed:
Aug. 14, 2007
David C. Duffin, Sandy, UT (US);
Daniel R. Jessop, Eagle Mountain, UT (US);
Michael Teferra, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Amitabh Puri, San Jose, CA (US);
Glade L. Warner, Sandy, UT (US);
David C. Duffin, Sandy, UT (US);
Daniel R. Jessop, Eagle Mountain, UT (US);
Michael Teferra, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Amitabh Puri, San Jose, CA (US);
Glade L. Warner, Sandy, UT (US);
Applied Materials, Inc, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are provided for managing movement of small lots between processing tools within an electronic device manufacturing facility. In some embodiments, a number of priority lots to be processed is determined and an equivalent number of carrier storage locations are reserved at a substrate loading station of a processing tool. The number of reserved carrier storage locations are made available either by processing and advancing occupying non-priority lots and/or moving unprocessed occupying non-priority lots from the substrate loading station. Priority lots are then transferred to the reserved carrier storage locations. Other embodiments are provided.