Automatic calibration of a wafer-handling robot
AssigneeNovellus Systems, Inc.
InventorsDamon Genetti, Wayne Tang, Mikhail Bojinov, Stephan Minard
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In one embodiment, a wafer-handling robot in a wafer processing system is automatically calibrated by determining an orientation of the robot relative to a chassis of the wafer processing system, determining hand-off coordinates of a load port in the wafer processing system, and determining hand-off coordinates of a load lock in the wafer processing system. Also disclosed is a calibration fixture for automatically calibrating the wafer-handling robot to the load port.
Claims25
A method of automatically calibrating a wafer-handling robot, the method comprising:
- determining an orientation of a robot relative to a chassis of a wafer processing system;
- determining hand-off coordinates of a load port in the wafer processing system;
- and
- determining hand-off coordinates of a first load lock in the wafer processing system;
- wherein determining the orientation of the robot relative to the chassis of the wafer processing system comprises:
- using the robot to find a first sensor located on one end of the wafer processing system;
- using the robot to find a second sensor located on another end of the wafer processing system;
- determining a distance between the first sensor and the second sensor;
- and
- determining an offset between a coordinate frame of the robot and a coordinate frame of the wafer processing system.
A calibration fixture for automatically calibrating a load port in a wafer processing system, the calibration fixture comprising:
- a plurality of wafer slots;
- a first sensor having a beam configured along an axis that represents a wafer center;
- and
- a calibration disk, wherein the calibration disk includes a surface simulating an edge of a wafer.
A method of automatically calibrating a wafer-handling robot to a loading port of a wafer processing system, the method comprising:
- providing a calibration fixture;
- determining radial and theta locations in the calibration fixture;
- determining a z-reference in the calibration fixture;
- moving an end-effector of a robot to a first wafer slot in the calibration fixture;
- moving the end-effector to a second wafer slot in the calibration fixture;
- and
- determining a leveling difference between z-axes of the robot and the calibration fixture.
A method of automatically calibrating a wafer-handling robot, the method comprising:
- determining an orientation of a robot relative to a chassis of a wafer processing system;
- determining hand-off coordinates of a load port in the wafer processing system;
- and
- determining hand-off coordinates of a first load lock in the wafer processing system;
- wherein determining the hand-off coordinates of the load port comprises:
- adjusting theta coordinates of locations in a load port fixture based on the orientation of the robot relative to the chassis of the wafer processing system;
- moving an end-effector of the robot to a first wafer slot of the load port fixture;
- moving the end-effector to a second wafer slot of the load port fixture;
- and
- determining a leveling difference between z-axes of the robot and the load port.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.