Supinating cartesian robot blade

An apparatus for transferring a substrate, comprising:

• a robot blade assembly comprising:
• a base having a substrate supporting surface;
• a reaction member coupled to the base;
• a contact member;
• and
• a first actuator which is coupled to the contact member and adapted to urge a substrate against the reaction member;
• a second actuator that is coupled to the robot blade assembly and is adapted to position the substrate supporting surface in the robot blade assembly in an angular orientation relative to a horizontal plane;
• a first robot assembly coupled to the second actuator, wherein the first robot assembly is adapted to position a substrate at one or more points generally contained within the horizontal plane, wherein the horizontal plane is parallel to the first direction and a second direction which is orthogonal to the first direction;
• a first motion assembly that is adapted to position the first robot in a third direction that is generally perpendicular to the horizontal plane;
• and
• a second motion assembly that is adapted to position the first robot in a direction generally parallel to the first direction;
• and
• a substrate retaining support coupled to the robot blade assembly that is adapted to receive a substrate when it is oriented in an angular orientation relative to the horizontal plane and the substrate is not being urged against the reaction member by the contact member.

A method of transferring a substrate, comprising:

• positioning a substrate on a substrate supporting device between a substrate contact member and a reaction member that are positioned on the substrate supporting device;
• generating a substrate holding force by use of a first actuator that urges the substrate contact member against the substrate and the substrate against the reaction member;
• positioning a substrate in an angular orientation relative to a horizontal plane using a second actuator;
• and
• capturing the substrate on substrate retaining support that is coupled to substrate supporting device when the holding force is removed and the substrate is oriented at an angle relative to the horizontal plane.

A cluster tool for processing a substrate, comprising:

• a first processing rack comprising:
• a first group of one or more process chambers that are stacked vertically;
• and
• a second group of one or more process chambers that are stacked vertically, wherein the one or more substrate processing chambers in the first and second groups have a first side that is aligned along a first direction;
• a first robot assembly adapted to transfer a substrate to the substrate processing chambers in the first processing rack, wherein the first robot assembly comprises:
• a first robot having a robot blade assembly which has a substrate receiving surface located thereon, wherein the first robot defines a transferring region and is adapted to position a substrate at one or more points generally contained within a horizontal plane, wherein the horizontal plane is parallel to the first direction and a second direction which is orthogonal to the first direction;
• an actuator that is coupled to the robot blade assembly and is adapted to position the substrate receiving surface in the robot blade assembly in an angular orientation relative to a vertical direction;
• a substrate retaining support coupled to the robot blade assembly that is adapted to receive a substrate when it is oriented in an angular orientation relative to the horizontal plane;
• a first motion assembly that is adapted to position the first robot in the vertical direction that is generally perpendicular to the horizontal plane;
• and
• a second motion assembly that is adapted to position the first robot in a direction generally parallel to the first direction.