Aligner Apparatus And Methods
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsYaseer Arafath Ahamed, James D. Strassner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Described herein are aligners and methods of aligning workpieces. A workpiece aligner apparatus comprises an aligner chuck including an arm having a first end and a second end, a first edge gripping element on the first end and a second edge gripping element on the second end, the first edge gripping element and the second edge gripping element spaced apart to hold a workpiece at edges thereof, and a central workpiece handling element located in a central region of the arm, wherein the central workpiece handling element has a height such that the central workpiece handling element extends higher than the first edge gripping element and second edge gripping element.
Claims20
A workpiece aligner apparatus comprising:
- an aligner chuck including an arm having a first end and a second end extending in an X-Y plane;
- a first edge gripping element on the first end and a second edge gripping element on the second end, the first edge gripping element and the second edge gripping element spaced apart to hold a workpiece at edges thereof;
- and
- a central workpiece handling element located in a central region of the arm, wherein the central workpiece handling element has a height in a Z-direction such that the central workpiece handling element extends higher than the first edge gripping element and second edge gripping element in the Z-direction.
A workpiece aligner apparatus comprising:
- an aligner chuck including an arm having a first end and a second end opposite the first end;
- a first edge gripping element on the first end and a second edge gripping element on the second end, the first edge gripping element and the second edge gripping element spaced apart to hold a workpiece at edges thereof;
- and
- a controller which controls rotation of the arm between a dead zone in which a robot blade is prevented from loading the workpiece to be held by the first edge gripping element and the second edge gripping element when the arm is in a first position and a transfer zone in which the robot blade is permitted to load the workpiece to be held by the first edge gripping element and the second edge gripping element when the arm is in a second position.
A method of processing a workpiece in an aligner apparatus, the method comprising:
- moving a workpiece on a robot blade and moving the robot blade toward an aligner chuck including an arm having a first end and a second end opposite the first end, a first edge gripping element on the first end and a second edge gripping element on the second end, the first edge gripping element and the second edge gripping element spaced apart to hold the workpiece at edges thereof, the arm moveable from a first radial position which permits loading of the workpiece on the aligner chuck to a second radial position which does not permit loading of the workpiece on the aligner chuck;
- checking if the arm is in the first radial position or the second radial position;
- and
- loading the workpiece on the aligner chuck when the arm is in the first radial position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.