High speed substrate sorter
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsAsaf Schlezinger, Markus J. Stopper
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed herein are a substrate sorter, an inspection and sorting system having the substrate sorter, and a method for the inspection and sorting system. The substrate sorter includes an annular gripper comprising a rotator and a plurality of vacuum applicators concyclically disposed around an axis, a carrier operable to move a substrate towards the rotator and into a loading region below the rotator, and an actuator coupled with the annular gripper and operable to rotate the rotator about the axis relative to the plurality of vacuum applicators while one or more of the plurality of vacuum applicators hold the substrate against the rotator.
Claims19
A substrate sorter comprising:
- an annular gripper operable to rotate about an axis;
- a plurality of vacuum applicators having an annular arrangement about the axis, the plurality of vacuum applicators operable to hold substrates against the annular gripper;
- and
- an actuator coupled to the annular gripper and operable to rotate the annular gripper about the axis relative to the plurality of vacuum applicators while the plurality of vacuum applicators hold the substrates against the annular gripper, a first vacuum applicator of the plurality of vacuum applicators operable to release a first substrate while a second vacuum applicator of the plurality of vacuum applicators retains a second substrate against the annular gripper.
A substrate sorter comprising:
- a loading region configured to receive a substrate to be sorted;
- and
- a plurality of vacuum applicators disposed in an annular arrangement about an axis, at least some of the plurality of vacuum applicators disposed over the loading region, the plurality of vacuum applicators operable to retain the substrate while the substrate is transported rotationally about the axis while remaining in a fixed position relative to the loading region.
A method of inspecting and sorting a plurality of substrates, the method comprising:
- securing a substrate exiting a metrology unit to a bottom surface rotating about an axis via a plurality of vacuum applicators, the plurality of vacuum applicators fixed in position relative to the bottom surface;
- rotating the substrate about the axis while secured to the bottom surface by different ones of the plurality of vacuum applicators;
- and
- releasing the substrate from the rotating bottom surface based on inspection results obtained in the metrology unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.