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US 11,685,055 B2Granted
Robot gripper for moving wafer carriers and packing materials and method of operating the same
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsChien-Fa Lee, Feng-Kuang Wu, Fu-Cheng Hung, Chi-Wei Chen, Chih-Hua Chen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A robot gripper for moving wafer carriers and packing materials and a method of operating the same are provided. The robot gripper includes two opposing clamp assemblies. The two clamp assemblies are configured to move close to or away from each other. Each of the clamp assemblies includes a movable support pin at a bottom of the clamp assembly.
Claims20
A gripper mechanism, comprising:
- a first clamp assembly having a first support pin at a bottom of the first clamp assembly;
- and
- a second clamp assembly arranged opposite to the first clamp assembly and having a second support pin at a bottom of the second clamp assembly;
- wherein the first and second clamp assemblies are configured to move close to or away from each other;
- wherein the first support pin is configured to move relative to the bottom of the first clamp assembly and the second support pin is configured to move relative to the bottom of the second clamp assembly;
- wherein the first support pin is configured to move close to or away from the bottom of the first clamp assembly and rotate with respect to the bottom of the first clamp assembly, and the second support pin is configured to move close to or away from the bottom of the second clamp assembly and rotate with respect to the bottom of the second clamp assembly;
- wherein the first support pin is configured to rotate from extending along a bottom edge of the first clamp assembly to extending toward the second support pin, and the second support pin is configured to rotate from extending along a bottom edge of the second clamp assembly to extending toward the first support pin.
4 more elements
A gripper mechanism, comprising:
- a pair of first clamps configured to clamp a first workpiece, wherein each of the first clamps has at least one movable support pin configured to support a bottom surface of the first workpiece;
- and
- a pair of second clamps configured to clamp a second workpiece,
- wherein the movable support pin is configured to rotate from extending along a first direction, which is substantially parallel to a clamp surface of the first clamp, to extending along a second direction, which is different from the first direction.
1 more element
A method of transferring a packing material and a wafer carrier, comprising:
- clamping a packing material by a pair of first clamps of a gripper mechanism;
- lifting the packing material by the pair of the first clamps up to a first height;
- extending support pins from bottoms of the pair of first clamps to support a bottom surface of the packing material;
- removing the packing material by lifting the packing material by the pair of first clamps and the support pins up to a second height;
- and
- clamping a wafer carrier by a pair of second clamps of the gripper mechanism subsequent to removing the packing material.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.