US 2026/0293597 A1Published application

Foup positional calibration device

AssigneeNanoverse Technologies Ltd

InventorsWilliam Robertson, Jeff Albelo

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Abstract

A semiconductor fabrication facility has numerous Si wafer processing modules. Robotic arms transfer the Si wafers to the processing equipment in these modules, retrieving them from their stacked array in a front opening unified pod (FOUP) with their end effectors. The FOUP resides in a load port in an equipment front end module (EFEM). Precision in retrieving the Si wafers is the key to a higher production yield and to minimizing Si wafer culls. The robots can only move about the module based on the module control computer's instructions based on its 3-D mapping of the EFEM, the load port and the FOUP. Often the mapping's 3-D cartesian coordinates are off slightly such that the directional instructions to the robotic arm are slightly off. This system uses dual lidar sensors mounted on a robotic arm in concert with 3-D reference targets on the EFEM and a FOUP alignment tool to calibrate the robot's three-dimensional awareness of both its spatial relation to the fixed elements of the EFEM as well as to Si wafers in a FOUP.

Claims6

Dependent claims

A method to calibrate an EFEM module control computer's three-dimensional mapping in an EFEM calibration program of a Front Opening Unified Pod (FOUP) in an EFEM load port in a semiconductor processing facility, comprising the steps of:

loading Si wafers onto into said FOUP, suspended on a set evenly spaced FOUP side shelf supports,
installing and locking a (FOUP) calibration tool into a precise reference position in said load port, said FOUP calibration tool having a FOUP solid-state horizontal array of sensors that provides a horizontal and vertical beam matrix across an internal width of said FOUP such that when said beam matrix is interrupted by an end effector of a robotic arm, said sensor generates a location data of the three-dimensional cartesian coordinate location of where in the FOUP said beam matrix is interrupted;
moving said robotic arm's end effectors into various positions within said FOUP calibration tool to interrupt said beam matrix, so said sensor generates three-dimensional location data of the position of said end effector within said FOUP;
providing said three-dimensional location data of said position of said end effector within said FOUP, from said FOUP sensor to said EFEM calibration program in said module control computer;
and
establishing a new three-dimensional mapping of said end effector's position in said FOUP by algorithmically reconciling said dimensional data with the previous factory mapping of said EFEM interior with respect to said robotic arm.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 19/088,604Filed 24 Mar 2025
Published: 24 Sep 2026
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

H10P 72/53
For positioning, orientation or alignment: using optical controlling means
B25J 9/1697
Characterised by use of sensors other than normal servo-feedback from position, speed or acceleration sensors, perception control, multi-sensor…:…
B25J 11/0095
Manipulators not otherwise provided for: manipulators transporting wafers
H10P 72/0608
Position monitoring, e.g. misposition detection or presence detection: of substrates stored in a container, a magazine, a carrier, a boat or the like