Buffer chamber wafer heating mechanism and supporting robots

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11264258-B2
Application number	US-202016877641-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 19, 2020
Priority date	Apr 20, 2015
Publication date	Mar 1, 2022
Grant date	Mar 1, 2022

Abstract

Buffer chamber including robots, a carousel and at least one heating module for use with a batch processing chamber are described. Robot configurations for rapid and repeatable movement of wafers into and out of the buffer chamber and cluster tools incorporating the buffer chambers and robots are described.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wafer transfer robot comprising:
a L-shaped boom having a first leg with a first end, a second leg with a second end, the first leg and second leg connected at an angled portion;
an armset attached to each of the first end and second end of the boom, each armset having a lower arm attached to the boom at a shoulder adjacent the first end or second end, an upper arm attached to the lower arm at an elbow and a blade attached to the upper arm at a wrist; and
a pulley which causes the shoulder, elbow and wrist to extend substantially simultaneously so that the blade remains parallel to the leg during extension.

2. The wafer transfer robot of claim 1 , wherein the transfer robot is a short armset robot on a long boom so that a combined length of the armset from shoulder to an end of the blade has a length that is up to about 2.5 times a length from a pivot point in the angled portion of the boom to the shoulder.

3. The wafer transfer robot of claim 2 , wherein the wafer transfer robot can use z-axis movement to lift a wafer on/off a carousel and place the wafer to a facet position.

4. The wafer transfer robot of claim 1 , wherein the transfer robot is a long armset robot on a short boom so that the combined length of the armset from shoulder to an end of the blade has a length that is greater than about 2.5 times a length from a pivot point in the angled portion of the boom to the shoulder.

5. The wafer transfer robot of claim 4 , wherein the long armset robot on a short boom has an armset length greater than about 3.5 times the length from the pivot point in the angled portion of the boom to the shoulder.

6. The wafer transfer robot of claim 4 , wherein the wafer transfer robot can use z-axis movement to lift a wafer on/off a carousel and place the wafer to a facet position.

7. A wafer transfer robot comprising:
an I-shaped boom having a first end, a second end and a pivot point;
an armset attached to each of the first end and second end of the boom, each armset having a lower arm attached to the boom at a shoulder adjacent the first end or second end, an upper arm attached to the lower arm at an elbow and a blade attached to the upper arm at a wrist; and
a pulley which causes the shoulder, elbow and wrist to extend substantially simultaneously so that the blade remains parallel to the I-shaped boom leg during extension.

8. The wafer transfer robot of claim 7 , wherein the transfer robot is a long armset robot on a short boom so that the combined length of the armset from should to an end of the blade has a length that is greater than about 2.5 times a length from the pivot point in the angled portion of the boom to the shoulder, and the boom is positioned at an angle in the range of about 30° to about 60° relative to a major axis of the movement of the blades.

9. The wafer transfer robot of claim 8 , wherein the long armset robot on a short boom has an armset length greater than about 3.5 times the length from the pivot point in the angled portion of the boom to the shoulder.

10. The wafer transfer robot of claim 7 , wherein each blade is offset so that a majority of the blade lies along the major axis of movement and a portion of the blade adjacent the wrist lies at 45° to the major axis, so that upon full extension of the armset, the lower arm, upper arm, shoulder, elbow and wrist are parallel to and offset from the major axis.

11. The wafer transfer robot of claim 8 , wherein the wafer transfer robot can use z-axis movement to lift a wafer on/off a carousel and place the wafer to a facet position.

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Weaver William T
• Schaller Jason M
• Vopat Robert Brent
• Blahnik David
• Riordon Benjamin B
• Pergande Paul E

Classifications

• H10P72/7621

  characterised by supporting two or more semiconductor substrates · CPC title

• H10P72/7618

  characterised by a movable susceptor, stage or support, others than those only rotating on their own vertical axis, e.g. susceptors on a rotating carrousel · CPC title

• H10P72/3304

  characterised by movements or sequence of movements of transfer devices · CPC title

• H10P72/3302

  Mechanical parts of transfer devices · CPC title

• H10P72/0464

  characterised by the construction of the transfer chamber · CPC title