78 patents
Utility
Automated Cryogenic Storage System
2 Mar 23
An automated cryogenic storage system includes a freezer and an automation system to provide automated transfer of samples to and from the freezer.
Robert T. Caveney, Frank Hunt, Lingchen Sun, Julian D. Warhurst, Bruce S. Zandi, Anthony C. Bonora
Filed: 13 Jul 22
Utility
Simulacrum Labware Substitutes and Methods Therefor
16 Feb 23
A temperature controlled sample specimen laboratory storage system, for storing sample specimens disposed in one or more of labware units and labware devices, includes a refrigerated chamber with a storage array therein having predetermined storage locations defining a predetermined capacity of one or more of labware unit storage and labware device storage of the storage array, where the storage array has a predetermined area, and at least one simulacrum labware substitute having a predetermined characteristic that simulates a corresponding one of the one or more of the labware units and labware devices.
Etienne P. CROQUETTE, Robin GRIMWOOD, David Andrew HARDING
Filed: 11 Aug 22
Utility
Temperature Control Apparatus for Temperature-controlled Material In a Cylindrical Container
1 Dec 22
An apparatus for temperature-controlling and thawing a temperature-controlled material which is arranged in at least one rigid container, including an openable housing containing a storage chamber for receiving the at least one container, and including a heating device containing a flat heating element which is operatively connected to the at least one container.
Armin Nowack, Christian Barkey
Filed: 26 May 22
Utility
Sample Tube and Rack to Reduce Ice Formation on Barcode
3 Nov 22
The 2D barcode at the base of a sample tube is protected from frosting by an air pocket within a wall of high thermal conductivity material that surrounds the barcode.
Volfango Bertola, David Porter, Maisara Abualqumboz
Filed: 29 Apr 22
Utility
Method and Apparatus for Substrate Alignment
20 Oct 22
A semiconductor wafer transport apparatus having a transport arm and at least one end effector.
Caspar Hansen
Filed: 5 Apr 22
Utility
Test Tube Capping And De-Capping Apparatus
1 Sep 22
An apparatus for automated capping and de-capping of test tubes having an ejector pin system for individualized cap ejection.
Stig Christensen, Lars Hovendahl, Michael Gabs Kaagaard Nielsen
Filed: 12 May 22
Utility
Substrate Transport Apparatus
25 Aug 22
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: 15 Mar 22
Utility
Substrate Transport Apparatus
25 Aug 22
A transport apparatus including a frame, a drive section connected to the frame, the drive section having at least one drive axis, at least one arm having an end effector configured for holding a substrate, the at least one arm being connected to the drive section by a transmission link and having at least one degree of freedom axis effecting extension and retraction of the end effector with respect to the at least one arm, and a bearing connected to the frame and the end effector, the bearing defining a guideway that defines the at least one degree of freedom axis.
Robert T. CAVENEY
Filed: 15 Mar 22
Utility
Substrate Processing Apparatus
16 Jun 22
A substrate processing apparatus including a frame, a first SCARA arm having an end effector and being configured to extend and retract along a first axis, a second SCARA arm having an end effector and being configured to extend and retract along a second axis, a drive section including a splitting drive pulley rotatably mounted to rotate at an axis of rotation of the drive section that is shared by the first and second SCARA arms, the splitting drive pulley being coupled to at least two idler pulleys by respective segmented transmission loops of separate band segments so that the splitting drive pulley is a common pulley splitting one degree of freedom of the drive section between the at least two idler pulleys so as to commonly drive the at least two idler pulleys, wherein at least one band of each respective transmission loop share a common band interface level.
Vincent W. TSANG, Charles W. SU
Filed: 8 Mar 22
Utility
Capping And De-Capping Apparatus And A Method Of Operating Such An Apparatus
9 Jun 22
A capping and de-capping apparatus for capping and de-capping tubes disposed in a tube holding rack having a two-dimensional array of apertures for holding the tubes.
Lars Weber Hovendahl, Michael Gabs Kaagaard Nielsen, Stig Christensen
Filed: 3 Feb 22
Utility
Substrate Processing Apparatus
2 Jun 22
A substrate processing apparatus including a frame, a first SCARA arm connected to the frame, including an end effector, configured to extend and retract along a first radial axis; a second SCARA arm connected to the frame, including an end effector, configured to extend and retract along a second radial axis, the SCARA arms having a common shoulder axis of rotation; and a drive section coupled to the SCARA arms is configured to independently extend each SCARA arm along a respective radial axis and rotate each SCARA arm about the common shoulder axis of rotation where the first radial axis is angled relative to the second radial axis and the end effector of a respective arm is aligned with a respective radial axis, wherein each end effector is configured to hold at least one substrate and the end effectors are located on a common transfer plane.
Robert T. CAVENEY, Jayaraman Krishnasamy, Ulysses Gilchrist, Mitchell Drew, Jairo Moura
Filed: 7 Dec 21
Utility
Method and Apparatus for Substrate Transport Apparatus Position Compensation
2 Jun 22
A substrate transport empiric arm droop mapping apparatus for a substrate transport system of a processing tool, the mapping apparatus including a frame, an interface disposed on the frame forming datum features representative of a substrate transport space in the processing tool defined by the substrate transport system, a substrate transport arm, that is articulated and has a substrate holder, mounted to the frame in a predetermined relation to at least one of the datum features, and a registration system disposed with respect to the substrate transport arm and at least one datum feature so that the registration system registers, in an arm droop distance register, empiric arm droop distance, due to arm droop changes, between a first arm position and a second arm position different than the first arm position and in which the substrate holder is moved in the transport space along at least one axis of motion.
Jairo T. MOURA, Robert T. CAVENEY, Bing ` YIN, Nathan SPIKER, Vincent W. TSANG
Filed: 15 Feb 22
Utility
Substrate Processing Apparatus
26 May 22
A substrate processing apparatus including a frame, a SCARA arm mounted to the frame at a shoulder joint having two links with at least one end effector dependent therefrom, the links defining an upper arm and a forearm, each end effector pivotally joined to the forearm at a wrist to rotate about a wrist axis, and a drive section with at least one degree of freedom operably coupled to the arm to rotate the arm about a shoulder axis articulating extension and retraction, wherein the end effector is coupled to a wrist joint pulley so that extension and retraction effects rotation of the pulley and end effector as a unit about the wrist axis, and wherein a height of the end effector is within a stack height profile of the wrist joint so that a total stack height is sized to conform with and pass through a pass-through of a slot valve.
Vincent W. Tsang, Robert T. Caveney
Filed: 7 Dec 21
Utility
Automated Sample Storage System Having Storage Consumable with Sub-optimal Storage Density
28 Apr 22
An automated sample specimen storage system including a tube holding microplate including a plate frame, a predetermined array of tube holding receptacles formed in the plate frame, the receptacles having a SBS standard pitch corresponding to the predetermined array, and being configured for holding therein sample store and transport tubes, each disposed so as to contain sample specimen in a sample storage of the storage system and to effect, with the sample tube, delivery from the sample storage to a workstation, the predetermined array of receptacles defining a volume capacity of the tube holding microplate, and each of the receptacles being shaped to conformally engage walls of the sample tubes and hold a respective one of the sample store and transport tubes, wherein the receptacles are arranged so that the tube holding microplate volume capacity defined by the predetermined array is an under optimum volume capacity.
Etienne CROQUETTE, Robin GRIMWOOD, David Andrew HARDING, Chris WALSH
Filed: 2 Nov 21
Utility
Compact Direct Drive Spindle
14 Apr 22
A substrate transport apparatus including a frame, at least one arm link rotatably connected to the frame and a shaftless drive section.
Robert T. CAVENEY
Filed: 7 Sep 21
Utility
Automated Vault Module
31 Mar 22
Cryogenic storage system provides automated storage and retrieval of samples in a cryogenic environment, as well as automated transfer of individual samples between cryogenic environments.
Etienne Croquette, Matteo F. Salvetti, Rhett Affleck
Filed: 7 Dec 21
Utility
Automated Teach Apparatus for Robotic Systems and Method Therefor
24 Feb 22
An automatic teaching system for a substrate processing apparatus, the automatic teaching system comprising a frame having a workpiece load station with a predetermined load station reference location, a robot transport mounted to the frame and having a movable transport arm with an end effector having a predetermined end effector reference location, and a drive section driving the movable transport arm in at least one degree of freedom motion relative to the frame, a machine vision system including both at least one fixed imaging sensor and at least one movable imaging sensor removably connected to the frame and configured to image at least one target of the machine vision system, a load jig disposed for removable engagement with the workpiece load station, with both the at least one fixed imaging sensor and the at least one movable imaging sensor mounted to the load jig, the fixed imaging sensor.
Justo GRACIANO, Helen HWANG, Erick PASTOR
Filed: 29 Jun 21
Utility
Tray Engine and Methods for Transferring Trays to and From Tools and in Sorters
11 Nov 21
A tray engine includes a vertical drive column, a rotation mechanism for rotating the vertical drive column, and an end effector attached to the vertical drive column.
Anthony C. Bonora, Brian Compian, Jeff P. Henderson, Robert W. Carlson
Filed: 22 Jul 21
Utility
on the Fly Automatic Wafer Centering Method and Apparatus
30 Sep 21
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 MOURA, Vincent TSANG, Aaron GAWLIK, Nathan SPIKER
Filed: 13 Apr 21
Utility
Load Port Module
23 Sep 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 substrate loading device and the substrate processing apparatus, a cassette support connected to the frame for holding at least one substrate cassette container for transfer of substrates to and from the at least one substrate cassette container through the transport opening, and selectably variable cassette support purge ports with a variable purge port nozzle outlet, variable between more than one selectable predetermined purge port nozzle characteristics, disposed on the cassette support, each of the more than one purge port nozzle characteristics being configured so that the purge port nozzle outlet with each selected predetermined purge port nozzle characteristic complements and couples to at least one purge port of the at least one substrate cassette container.
Radik Sunugatov, Robert Carlson
Filed: 8 Jun 21