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US 2013/0199405 A1Published application
Circular track actuator system
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsJagan Rangarajan, Alpay Yilmaz
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Embodiments of the present invention relate to an apparatus and a method for transferring substrate processing equipment. One embodiment of the present invention includes a track assembly having a continuous guide rail formed from a unitary body. The track assembly also includes vertically arranged stator strips for driving motor coils of a plurality of carriages. The motor coils in the carriages may be modular including coil segments of various lengths. The coil segments and the carriages may be driven individually and jointly.
Claims20
An apparatus for substrate processing, comprising:
- a base plate;
- a guide rail assembly coupled to the base plate;
- a linear motor track attached to the base plate along the guide rail assembly;
- a plurality of carriages movably coupled to the guide rail assembly, wherein each of the plurality of carriages comprises a motor coil positioned to interact with the linear motor track;
- and
- a system controller, wherein the system controller is configured to send control signals to the plurality of carriages to move each plurality of carriages independently from each other, and to move two or more neighboring carriages in synchronization so that the two or more neighboring carriages transfer a substrate processing equipment coupled to the two or more neighboring carriages jointly.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.