Substrate transport vacuum platform

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10424498-B2
Application number	US-201414480803-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 9, 2014
Priority date	Sep 9, 2013
Publication date	Sep 24, 2019
Grant date	Sep 24, 2019

Abstract

A transport apparatus including a robot drive; an arm having a first end connected to the robot drive; and at least one end effector connected to a second end of the arm. The arm includes at least three links connected in series to form the arm. The arm is configured to be moved by the robot drive to move the at least one end effector among load locks and two or more sets of opposing process modules.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A transport apparatus comprising:
a robot drive configured to be mounted to a vacuum transport chamber at a fixed singular location;
an arm having a first end connected to the robot drive; and
at least one end effector connected to a second end of the arm,
where the arm comprises at least three links connected in series to form the arm, and
where the arm is configured to be moved by the robot drive to move the at least one end effector among load locks and two or more sets of opposing process modules while the robot drive is retained at the fixed singular location on the vacuum transport chamber, where the transport apparatus is configured to retain the robot drive at the fixed singular location on the vacuum transport chamber while the arm is moved by the robot drive to move the at least one end effector among the load locks and the two or more sets of opposing process modules.

2. A transport apparatus as in claim 1 where the at least three links comprise four or more of the links connected in series.

3. A transport apparatus as in claim 1 where the at least one end effector comprises at least two of the end effectors connected to the second end of the arm.

4. A transport apparatus as in claim 3 where the transport apparatus is configured to move the at least two end effectors into respective opposing ones of the process modules at least partially at a same time.

5. A transport apparatus as in claim 3 where the at least two end effectors are each connected to the arm to be independently rotatable relative to each other.

6. A transport apparatus as in claim 1 where the at least three links are independently rotatable relative to each other by the robot drive, or non-independently rotatable relative to each other by movement constraining connections between joints of the links.

7. A vacuum transport system comprising:
a transport chamber;
a transport apparatus as in claim 1 connected to the transport chamber, where the transport apparatus forms a first transport apparatus of the vacuum transport system; and
a second transport apparatus connected to the transport chamber, where the second transport apparatus comprises:
a second robot drive;
a second arm having a first end connected to the second robot drive; and
at least one second end effector connected to a second end of the second arm,
where the second arm comprises at least three second links connected in series to form the second arm, and
where the second arm is configured to be moved by the second robot drive to move the at least one end second effector among two or more sets of opposing process modules,

where the first and second transport apparatus are configured to deliver one or more devices to be processed therebetween.

8. A transport apparatus comprising:
a robot drive;
an arm having a first end connected to the robot drive; and
at least two end effectors connected to a second end of the arm,
where the robot drive and the arm are configured to move a first one of the end effectors, connected to the second end of the arm, and a second one of the end effectors, connected to the second end of the arm, into respective process modules and/or out of the respective process modules through respective isolation valves of each process module at a same time, where the respective process modules are at least partially directly opposite each other.

9. A transport apparatus as in claim 8 where the arm comprises at least three links connected in series to form the arm, and where the at least two end effectors are each connected to the arm to be independently rotatable relative to each other.

10. A transport apparatus as in claim 9 where the at least three links comprise four or more of the links connected in series.

11. A transport apparatus as in claim 9 where the at least three links are independently rotatable relative to each other by the robot drive, and/or non-independently rotatable relative to each other by movement constraining connections between joints of the links.

12. A transport apparatus as in claim 8 where a first one of the end effectors is connected to the second end of the arm by a first independent rotary link, and where a second one of the end effectors is connected to the second end of the arm by a second independent rotary link.

13. A transport apparatus as in claim 8 where the robot drive and the first end of the arm are connected to a traverser, where the traverser is configured to linearly moved the robot drive and the arm in a horizontal path.

14. A transport apparatus as in claim 8 where the respective process modules each have an entrance into and out of the respective process modules for the end effectors, where the entrances are at least partially directly opposite each other.

15. A transport apparatus as in claim 8 where the arm comprises a first link extending from a first joint and a second link extending from the first joint, where the first end effector is connected to an end of the first link and the second end effector is connected to an end of the second link.

16. A vacuum transport system comprising:
a transport chamber;
a first transport apparatus connected to the transport chamber, where the first transport apparatus comprises a first robot drive, a first arm connected to the first robot drive, and at least one first end effector connected to the first arm, where the at least one end first effector is configured to support at least two devices to be processed thereon, where the first robot drive is mounted to the transport chamber at a fixed singular location; and
a second transport apparatus connected to the transport chamber, where the second transport apparatus comprises a second robot drive, a second arm connected to the second robot drive, and at least one second end effector connected to the second arm, where the at least one second end effector is configured to support at least two devices to be processed thereon,
where the first and second transport apparatus are configured move the devices to be processed directly between the first and second transport apparatus, where the first transport apparatus is configured to move two of the first end effectors into respective opposing ones of the process modules at least partially at a same time while the robot drive is retained at the fixed singular location on the vacuum transport chamber, where the transport apparatus is configured to retain the robot drive at the fixed singular location on the vacuum transport chamber while the first arm is moved by the first robot drive to move the two first end effectors among the opposing process modules.

17. A vacuum transport system as in claim 16 where at least one of the first and second arm comprise at least three links connected in series to form the first and/or second arm, where the first arm is configured to be moved by the first robot drive to move the at least one first end effector among load locks and two or more sets of opposing process modules.

Assignees

• Persimmon Technologies Corp
• Persimmon Tech Corporation

Inventors

• Hofmeister Christopher
• Hosek Martin

Classifications

• H10P72/3302 Primary

  Mechanical parts of transfer devices · CPC title

• Y10S901/27

  Arm part · CPC title

• B25J9/042

  comprising an articulated arm · CPC title

• H01L21/67742 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic