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US 2017/0256434 A1Published application
Wafer handling assembly
AssigneeVeeco Instruments Inc.
InventorsYuliy Rashkovsky, Brett Stuart Snowden, Miguel Angel Saldana
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A wafer handling assembly comprising a center hub supporting a vertical non-contact lifting head and at least one radially extending and radially retracting wafer engaging mechanism having a surface to engage a wafer at a peripheral edge of the wafer, where the peripheral edge is a corner edge or a side edge. In some implementations, the wafer engaging mechanism has a foot on which the wafer edge is supported. The lifting head may be vertically moveable in respect to the assembly.
Claims21
A wafer handling assembly comprising:
- a center hub supporting a vertical lifting head and at least three radially extending and radially retracting wafer engaging mechanisms each having a surface to engage a wafer at a peripheral edge of the wafer.
A wafer handling assembly comprising:
- a non-contact vertical lifting head;
- at least one wafer engaging mechanism supported by an arm and configured to radially extend and radially retract in relation to the lifting head, the wafer engaging mechanism comprising a wafer receiving region defined by a lower toe;
- and
- at least one wafer alignment pin.
1 more element
A method comprising:
- providing a wafer on a carrier, the wafer having a top surface, a bottom surface in contact with the carrier, a top peripheral corner edge, a bottom peripheral corner edge, and a peripheral side edge;
- non-contactingly engaging the top surface of the wafer with a lifting head;
- lifting the wafer from the carrier with the lifting head;
- and
- after lifting the wafer, contacting the bottom peripheral corner edge or peripheral side edge with a wafer engaging mechanism and then releasing the wafer from the lifting head.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.