164 patents
Page 4 of 9
Utility
End effector with slides for transferring trays
3 Aug 21
An end effector for transferring a tray is described.
Anthony C. Bonora, Brian Compian, Jeff P. Henderson, Robert W. Carlson
Filed: 29 Aug 18
Utility
Substrate Transport Apparatus
29 Jul 21
A substrate transport apparatus comprising a frame, a drive section connected to the frame, and an articulated arm having at least one articulated arm link operably connected to the drive section so that the articulated arm rotates about a pivot axis relative to the frame and extends and retracts relative to the pivot axis.
Daniel BABBS, Vincent W. TSANG, Robert C. MAY
Filed: 22 Jan 21
Utility
Vessel Gripper
22 Jul 21
A gripper provides for gripping labware having a variety of diameters and shapes.
Stephen White
Filed: 20 Jan 21
Utility
Dual Scara Arm
22 Jul 21
A substrate transport apparatus having a drive section and a scara arm operably connected to the drive section to move the scara arm.
Antonio F. PIETRANTONIO, Anthony Chesna, Hakan Elmali, Ulysses Gilchrist
Filed: 26 Jan 21
Utility
Transport Apparatus and Adapter Pendant
22 Jul 21
A semiconductor process transport apparatus including a drive section with at least one motor, an articulated arm coupled to the drive section for driving articulation motion, a machine controller coupled to the drive section to control the at least one motor moving the articulated arm from one location to a different location, and an adapter pendant having a machine controller interface coupling the adapter pendant for input/output with the machine controller, the adapter pendant having another interface, configured for connecting a fungible smart mobile device having predetermined resident user operable device functionality characteristics, wherein the other interface has a connectivity configuration so mating of the fungible smart mobile device with the other interface automatically enables configuration of at least one of the resident user operable device functionality characteristics to define an input/output to the machine controller effecting input commands and output signals for motion control of the articulated arm.
Dana L. ATWOOD, Jairo MOURA
Filed: 26 Jan 21
Utility
Process Apparatus with On-the-fly Substrate Centering
24 Jun 21
A substrate processing apparatus including a frame defining a chamber with a substrate transport opening and a substrate transfer plane defined therein, a valve mounted to the frame and being configured to seal an atmosphere of the chamber when closed, the valve having a door movably disposed to open and close the substrate transport opening, and at least one substrate sensor element disposed on a side of the door and oriented to sense substrates located on the substrate transfer plane.
Leigh F. SHARROCK
Filed: 29 Dec 20
Utility
Substrate Processing Apparatus
17 Jun 21
A substrate transport apparatus having a drive section and at least one articulated multi-link arm having an upper arm joined at one end to the drive section and a forearm joined to the upper arm.
Alexander Krupyshev, Joseph Hallisey, Kevin Bourbeau, Emilien Audebrand
Filed: 1 Dec 20
Utility
Intelligent Condition Monitoring and Fault Diagnostic System for Preventative Maintenance
10 Jun 21
A system for condition monitoring and fault diagnosis includes a data collection function that acquires time histories of selected variables for one or more of the components, a pre-processing function that calculates specified characteristics of the time histories, an analysis function for evaluating the characteristics to produce one or more hypotheses of a condition of the one or more components, and a reasoning function for determining the condition of the one or more components from the one or more hypotheses.
Martin HOSEK, Jay KRISHNASAMY, Jan PROCHAZKA
Filed: 24 Nov 20
Utility
Load Lock Fast Pump Vent
10 Jun 21
A semiconductor processing tool is disclosed, the tool having a frame forming at least one chamber with an opening and having a sealing surface around a periphery of the opening, a door configured to interact with the sealing surface for sealing the opening, the door having sides perpendicular to the door sealing surface and perpendicular to a transfer plane of a substrate, and at least one drive located on the frame to a side of at least one of the sides that are substantially perpendicular to the door sealing surface and substantially perpendicular to the transfer plane of the substrate, the drive having actuators located at least partially in front of the sealing surface and the actuators being coupled to one of the sides of the door for moving the door from a sealed position.
Christopher HOFMEISTER, Martin R. ELLIOTT, Alexander KRUPYSHEV, Joseph HALLISEY, Joseph A. KRAUS, William FOSNIGHT, Craig J. CARBONE, Jeffrey C, BLAHNIK, Ho Yin Owen FONG
Filed: 1 Dec 20
Utility
Load port module
8 Jun 21
Substrate loading device including a frame adapted to connect the substrate loading device to a substrate processing apparatus, the frame having a transport opening through which substrates are transported between the loading device and processing apparatus, a cassette support for holding at least one substrate cassette container, and cassette support purge ports with purge port nozzle locations disposed on the cassette support, each nozzle location being configured so that a nozzle at the nozzle location couples to at least one purge port of the substrate cassette container, wherein each nozzle location defines an interchangeable purge port nozzle interface so that different interchangeable purge port nozzles are removably mounted to respective nozzle interfaces of the nozzle locations that correspond to the different nozzle configurations of the interchangeable purge port nozzle modules, in conformance with and effecting coupling to different ports of different substrate cassette containers having different purge port characteristics.
Radik Sunugatov, Robert Carlson
Filed: 22 Nov 19
Utility
Substrate transport apparatus with independent accessory feedthrough
1 Jun 21
A substrate transport apparatus including; a frame, a substrate transport arm connected to the frame, the substrate transport arm having an end effector, and a drive section having at least one motor coupled to the substrate transport arm, wherein the at least one motor defines a kinematic portion of the drive section configured to effect kinematic motion of the substrate transport arm, and the drive section includes an accessory portion adjacent the kinematic portion, wherein the accessory portion has another motor, different and distinct from the at least one motor, the another motor of the accessory portion is operably coupled to and configured to drive one or more accessory device independent of the kinematic motion of the substrate transport arm.
Sean E Plaisted, Leigh F Sharrock, Chris Aitken
Filed: 4 Oct 18
Utility
Modular Sample Store
20 May 21
A modular sample store including a storage area; a service area; a transfer area; a motorized robot with a lifting device and at least one platform; and a controller.
Johann CAMENISCH, Beat REUTELER, Mirko HEBENSTREIT, Jurg TANNER, Christian CACHELIN
Filed: 17 Nov 20
Utility
Method and Apparatus for Health Assessment of a Transport Apparatus
20 May 21
A method for health assessment of a system including a transport apparatus including registering predetermined operating data embodying at least one dynamic performance variable output by the transport apparatus, determining a base value (CpkBase) characterized by a probability density function of each of the dynamic performance variable output, resolving from the transport apparatus in situ process motion commands of the apparatus controller and defining another predetermined motion set of the transport apparatus, registering predetermined operating data embodying the at least one dynamic performance variable output by the transport apparatus and determining with the processor another value (CpkOther) characterized by the probability density function of each of the dynamic performance variable output by the transport apparatus, and comparing the other value and the base value (CpkBase) for each of the dynamic performance variable output by the transport apparatus respectively corresponding to the predetermined motion base set and the other predetermined motion set.
Aaron GAWLIK, Jairo T. MOURA
Filed: 24 Nov 20
Utility
Position feedback for self bearing motor
11 May 21
A sensing mechanism includes a magnetic source, a magnetic flux sensor, a sensor backing on which the magnetic source and flux sensor are mounted, and a ferromagnetic target, where the magnetic source, magnetic flux sensor, and ferromagnetic target are positioned to form a magnetic circuit from the magnetic source to the target, from the target to the sensor, and returning to the magnetic source through the sensor backing.
Martin Hosek, Jairo Moura, Jay Krishnasamy, Jeff Paranay
Filed: 8 Oct 10
Utility
Tube Sealer
22 Apr 21
A device for sealing sample tubes comprises a tool assembly configured to interface with a rack holding a plurality of sample storage tubes, the tool assembly holding a plurality of punches and a die plate including a plurality of cutting holes, with each of the plurality of cutting holes accepting one of the plurality of punches.
Beat Reuteler
Filed: 23 Dec 20
Utility
On the fly automatic wafer centering method and apparatus
13 Apr 21
A Substrate processing apparatus including a wafer transport apparatus with a transport arm including an end effector, an arm pose deterministic feature integral to the substrate transport apparatus and disposed so that a static detection sensor of the substrate processing apparatus detects at least one edge of the at least one arm pose deterministic feature on the fly with radial motion of the transport arm, and a controller configured so that detection of the edge effects a determination of a proportion factor identifying at least a thermal expansion variance of the transport arm on the fly and includes a kinematic effects resolver configured to determine, from the detection of the edge on the fly, a discrete relation between the determined proportion factor and each different discrete variance respective to each different link of the transport arm determining at least the thermal expansion variance of the transport arm on the fly.
Bing Yin, Jairo T. Moura, Vincent Tsang, Aaron Gawlik, Nathan Spiker
Filed: 20 Nov 18
Utility
Time-optimal trajectories for robotic transfer devices
6 Apr 21
A time-optimal trajectory generation method, for a robotic manipulator having a transport path with at least one path segment, comprising generating a forward time-optimal trajectory of the manipulator along the at least one path segment from a start point of the at least one path segment towards an end point of the at least one path segment, generating a reverse time-optimal trajectory of the manipulator along the at least one path segment from the end point towards the start point of the at least one path segment, and combining the time-optimal forward and reverse trajectories to obtain a complete time-optimal trajectory, where the forward and reverse trajectories of the at least one path segment are blended together with a smoothing bridge joining the time-optimal forward and reverse trajectories in a position-velocity reference frame with substantially no discontinuity between the time-optimal forward and reverse trajectories.
Jayaraman Krishnasamy, Martin Hosek
Filed: 28 Aug 18
Utility
Tool Auto-teach Method and Apparatus
1 Apr 21
A substrate transport apparatus auto-teach system for auto-teaching a substrate station location, the system including a frame, a substrate transport connected to the frame, the substrate transport having an end effector configured to support a substrate, and a controller configured to move the substrate transport so that the substrate transport biases the substrate supported on the end effector against a substrate station feature causing a change in eccentricity between the substrate and the end effector, determine the change in eccentricity, and determine the substrate station location based on at least the change in eccentricity between the substrate and the end effector.
Jairo T Moura, Aaron Gawlik, Reza Saeidpourazar
Filed: 8 Sep 20
Utility
Method and Apparatus for Substrate Alignment
18 Mar 21
A semiconductor wafer transport apparatus having a transport arm and at least one end effector.
Caspar Hansen
Filed: 13 Sep 19
Utility
Substrate Transport Apparatus
4 Mar 21
A transport apparatus including a drive section connected to a frame and including a multi-drive shaft spindle, with at least one coaxial shaft spindle, more than one different interchangeable motor module arranged in a stack, each having a motor operably coupled thereto and defining a corresponding independent drive axis, and a can seal disposed between the stator and rotor of each motor module and hermetically sealing the stator and rotor from each other, at least one of the motor modules is selectable for placement in the stack from other different interchangeable motor modules, each having a different predetermined characteristic, independent of placement in the stack, that defines a different predetermined drive characteristic of the corresponding drive axis, independent of shaft spindle location, so that selection of the at least one motor module determines the different predetermined drive characteristic of the corresponding axis different from another of the independent drive axis.
Robert T. Caveney
Filed: 18 Aug 20