Back to results
US 10,593,579 B2Granted
Substrate transport vacuum platform
AssigneePersimmon Technologies Corporation
InventorsChristopher Hofmeister, Martin Hosek
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A transport apparatus including a robot drive; an arm having a first end connected to the robot drive; and at least one end effector connected to a second end of the arm. The arm includes at least three links connected in series to form the arm. The arm is configured to be moved by the robot drive to move the at least one end effector among load locks and two or more sets of opposing process modules.
Claims19
An apparatus comprising:
- a first robot arm comprising at least two links and at least one end effector, where the first robot arm is mounted to a carriage;
- a second robot arm comprising at least two links and at least one end effector, where the second robot arm is mounted to a carriage;
- and
- a drive connected to the first robot arm and the second robot arm, where the drive comprises:
- a first robot drive having a plurality of coaxial drive shafts;
- a second robot drive having a plurality of coaxial drive shafts, where the second robot drive is spaced from the first robot drive;
- and
- a transmission comprising drive belts connecting the first and second robot drives to both the carriages(s) and the first and second robot arms,
- where the first and second robot drives and the transmission are configured to longitudinally move the carriage(s) on at least one slide and are configured to selectively and independently move the robot arms to move the end effectors into and out of load locks and processing modules.
6 more elements
A method comprising:
- connecting a first robot arm to a carriage, where the first robot arm comprises at least two links and at least one first end effector;
- connecting a second robot arm to a carriage, where the second robot arm comprises at least two links and at least one second end effector;
- locating the carriage(s) on at least one slide to allow the carriage(s) and the robot arms to longitudinally move along the at least one slide;
- connecting the robot arms and the carriage(s) to a transmission having drive belts;
- and
- connecting the drive belts to a first robot drive and a spaced second robot drive, where the first and second robot drives each have a plurality of coaxial drive shafts, where the carriage(s), the first robot arm and the second robot arm are connected by the drive belts to the first and second robot drives,
- where the first and second robot drives and the transmission are configured to longitudinally move the carriage(s) on the at least one slide and are configured to selectively and independently move the robot arms to move the end effectors into and out of load locks and processing modules.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.