US 2003/0198547 A1 · Apparatus and methods for manipulating semiconductor wafers

Abstract

Apparatus and methods for a wafer handling system that manipulates semiconductor wafers. The invention includes an end effector having a vacuum chuck, an internal vacuum plenum, and flow diverters positioned within the vacuum plenum that define vacuum distribution channels coupled in fluid communication with vacuum ports of the vacuum chuck. The invention also includes a vacuum chuck having flow diverters positioned in one or more internal vacuum plenums that are in fluid communication with the vacuum ports of the vacuum chuck. The flow diverters adjust the vacuum pressure supplied to the vacuum ports such that, as vacuum ports are occluded by the wafer, the vacuum pressure is preferentially applied to unblocked vacuum ports for increasing the attractive force applied to unengaged portions of the wafer. The apparatus of the present invention has particularly utility for securing thin semiconductor wafers with a significant warpage.

Claims24

Dependent claims

An apparatus for supporting a wafer in a wafer handling device, the wafer having an annular exclusion area extending a predetermined distance radially inward from a peripheral rim of the wafer, and the wafer handling device having a selectively operable vacuum source, the apparatus comprising

a body member having a wafer-support surface and an internal vacuum plenum, said wafer-support surface including a plurality of vacuum ports arranged in a mutually spaced relationship so as to underlie the annular exclusion area of the wafer when the wafer is positioned thereat, the vacuum plenum communicating with the vacuum source for evacuating air therefrom to thereby apply a subatmospheric pressure thereto;
and
a plurality of flow diverters positioned within said vacuum plenum and partitioning said vacuum plenum into a plurality of vacuum distribution channels, at least one of said plurality of vacuum distribution channels being in fluid communication with at least one of said plurality of vacuum ports, said flow diverters redirecting the subatmospheric pressure among said plurality of vacuum distribution channels as each of said plurality of vacuum ports is occluded by a portion of the wafer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Apparatus and methods for manipulating semiconductor wafers

Life of this patent

Apparatus and methods for manipulating semiconductor wafers

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims24