Substrate transport apparatus
AssigneeBrooks Automation US, LLC
InventorsRobert T. Caveney, Ulysses Gilchrist, Alexander Krupyshev
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A transfer apparatus including a frame, multiple arms connected to the frame, each arm having an end effector and an independent drive axis for extension and retraction of the respective arm with respect to other ones of the multiple arms, a linear rail defining a degree of freedom for the independent drive axis for extension and retraction of at least one arm, and a common drive axis shared by each arm and configured to pivot the multiple arms about a common pivot axis, wherein at least one of the multiple arms having another drive axis defining an independent degree of freedom with respect to other ones of the multiple arms.
Claims18
A transfer apparatus comprising:
- a frame forming a sealed chamber having a chamber atmosphere;
- multiple arms connected to the frame and disposed within the sealed chamber, each arm being a multi-link arm and having an independent drive axis for extending and retracting the respective arm so that a first multi-link arm has a first independent drive axis, and a second multi-link arm has a second independent drive axis different than the first independent drive axis;
- an outside drive section located outside the sealed chamber and connected to the multiple arms for moving the multiple arms about a common axis;
- and
- an inside drive section located inside the sealed chamber, the inside drive section including a sealed housing configured to hold a sealed atmosphere different than the chamber atmosphere;
- wherein the sealed housing has different sealed motors distributed in the sealed chamber, including:
- a first sealed rotary motor for a first drive axis that describes the first independent drive axis of at least the first multi-link arm, and a second sealed rotary motor, sealed apart from the first sealed rotary motor, and providing a second drive axis that is different than the first drive axis, where the second drive axis describes the second independent drive axis of the at least second multi-link arm,
- wherein the first independent drive axis, and second independent drive axis are each independent of each other and outside the sealed housing.
A method comprising:
- providing a transfer apparatus comprising:
- a frame forming a sealed chamber having a chamber atmosphere,
- multiple arms connected to the frame and disposed within the sealed chamber, each arm being a multi-link arm and having an independent drive axis for extending and retracting the respective arm so that a first multi-link arm has a first independent drive axis, and a second multi-link arm has a second independent drive axis different than the first independent drive axis,
- an outside drive section located outside the sealed chamber and connected to the multiple arms, and
- an inside drive section located inside the sealed chamber, the inside drive section including a sealed housing configured to hold a sealed atmosphere different than the chamber atmosphere, where the sealed housing has different sealed motors distributed in the sealed chamber, comprising:
- a first sealed rotary motor for a first drive axis describing the first independent drive axis of at least the first multi-link arm, and
- a second sealed rotary motor sealed apart from the first sealed rotary motor, and providing a second drive axis that is different than the first drive axis, the second drive axis describing the second independent drive axis of the at least second multi-link arm;
- and
- moving, with the outside drive section, the multiple arms about a common axis;
- wherein the first independent drive axis and second independent drive axis are each independent of each other and outside the sealed housing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.