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:
May. 15, 2012
Filed:
Aug. 20, 2008
Peter Van Der Meulen, Newburyport, MA (US);
Paul E. Fogel, Cambridge, MA (US);
Peter van der Meulen, Newburyport, MA (US);
Paul E. Fogel, Cambridge, MA (US);
Brooks Automation, Inc., Chelmsford, MA (US);
Abstract
The presence of a workpiece on an end effector of a vacuum robotic handler is detecting using any of a number of non-contact techniques in which some or all of the detection hardware is positioned outside a vacuum chamber that encloses the vacuum robotic handler. Various deployments include laser beam breaking, analysis of radar reflection signals, or analysis of radio frequency identification tag signatures. By providing non-physical couplings between hardware inside and outside of a vacuum environment, integrity of the vacuum is improved. These non-contact techniques are further adapted as described herein to multi-wafer and multi-end effector environments so that independent detection of multiple wafers (e.g., for each end effector) can be performed.