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US 11,380,569 B2Granted
Shiftless wafer blades
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsChien-Chih Chen, Yao-Min Yu, Ching-Ling Lee, Ren-Dou Lee
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In an embodiment, a system includes: a cassette comprising a slit opening configured to house a wafer; a blade configured to move the wafer to and from the slit opening by extending into the slit opening, wherein a blade thickness of the blade is at most ⅖ of a height of the slit opening and wherein the blade is configured to secure the wafer within a pocket on the blade that is at least ⅔ of a wafer thickness of the wafer.
Claims20
A system, comprising:
- a cassette comprising a slit opening configured to house a wafer;
- and
- a blade configured to move the wafer to and from the slit opening by extending into the slit opening, wherein the blade is configured to secure the wafer within a pocket on the blade, and
- wherein the blade comprises an upper pocket contour and a lower pocket contour, wherein each of the upper and lower pocket contours comprise rounded vertical outside corners and rounded horizontal outside corners, and wherein the blade further comprises at least one forward protrusion with rounded corners and at least one opening having a portion that extends into a part of the at least one forward protrusion, respectively.
1 more element
A system, comprising:
- a cassette comprising a slit opening configured to house a wafer;
- and
- a blade configured to move the wafer to and from the slit opening by extending into the slit opening by an extension depth as measured from an extreme end of the blade, wherein the blade is configured to secure the wafer within a contour on the blade, and
- wherein the blade comprises an upper pocket contour and a lower pocket contour forming at least a partial outline of two concentric circles such that an area between the two concentric circles forms the pocket on the blade on which the wafer rests,
- wherein each of the upper and lower pocket contours comprise rounded vertical outside corners and rounded horizontal outside corners.
2 more elements
A method, comprising:
- extending a blade into a slit opening of a cassette;
- securing a wafer on the blade within the slit opening, wherein the blade is configured to secure the wafer within a pocket on the blade, wherein the blade comprises an upper pocket contour and a lower pocket contour forming at least a partial outline of two concentric circles such that an area between the two concentric circles forms the pocket on the blade on which the wafer rests, wherein each of the upper and lower pocket contours comprise rounded vertical outside corners and rounded horizontal outside corners, and wherein the blade further comprises at least one forward protrusion with rounded corners and at least one opening having a portion that extends into a part of the at least one forward protrusion, respectively;
- transporting the wafer on the blade from the slit opening to a processing chamber;
- and
- depositing the wafer in the processing chamber.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.