Compact direct drive spindle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9186799-B2
Application number	US-201213547786-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 12, 2012
Priority date	Jul 13, 2011
Publication date	Nov 17, 2015
Grant date	Nov 17, 2015

Abstract

A substrate transport apparatus including a frame, at least one arm link rotatably connected to the frame and a shaftless drive section. The shaftless drive section including stacked drive motors for rotating the at least one arm link relative to the frame through a shaftless interface, each of the stacked drive motors including a stator having stator coils disposed on a fixed post fixed relative to the frame and a rotor substantially peripherally surrounding the stator such that the rotor is connected to a respective one of the at least one arm link for rotating the one of the at least one arm link relative to the frame causing an extension or retraction of the one of the at least one arm link, where the stacked drive motors are disposed in the at least one arm link so that part of each stator is within a common arm link.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A substrate transport apparatus comprising:
a frame;
at least one arm link rotatably connected to the frame; and
a shaftless drive section, the shaftless drive section including stacked drive motors for rotating the at least one arm link relative to the frame through a shaftless interface, wherein each of the stacked drive motors is a shaftless motor including a stator having stator coils disposed on a fixed post fixed relative to the frame and a rotor substantially peripherally surrounding the stator such that the rotor is connected to a respective one of the at least one arm link for rotating the respective one of the at least one arm link relative to the frame causing an extension or retraction of the at least one arm link, where the stacked drive motors are disposed in the at least one arm link so that at least part of each stator is within a common arm link of the at least one arm link.

2. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the shaftless drive section is disposed substantially within the at least one arm link.

3. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the stator coil is isolated from vacuum.

4. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
a second drive section disposed at least partially within the frame and configured to linearly move the at least one arm link in a direction substantially normal to a plane containing a direction of extension or retraction of the at least one arm link.

5. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the at least one arm link is connected to the frame by a seal capable of accommodating relative axial movement between the at least one arm link and frame wherein the seal is located on one side of the arm and the first drive section is located on the opposite side of the arm.

6. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one arm link includes an upper arm rotatably connected to the frame about a shoulder axis of rotation, a forearm rotatably connected to the upper arm about an elbow axis of rotation and at least one substrate holder rotatably connected to the forearm about a wrist axis of rotation and the at least one drive motor includes at least two stacked drive motors where each motor drives rotation of a respective one of the upper arm and forearm.

7. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one arm link includes an upper arm rotatably connected to the frame about a shoulder axis of rotation, a forearm rotatably connected to the upper arm about an elbow axis of rotation and at least one substrate holder rotatably connected to the forearm about a wrist axis of rotation and the at least one drive motor includes at least three stacked drive motors where each motor drives rotation of a respective one of the upper arm, forearm and at least one substrate holder.

8. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one arm link includes an upper arm rotatably connected to the frame about a shoulder axis of rotation and at least one substrate holder movably mounted to the upper arm for linear travel along at least a portion of a length of the upper arm and the at least one drive motor includes at least two stacked drive motors where one of the at least two stacked drive motors drives rotation of the upper arm and the other ones of the at least two stacked drive motors drives the linear travel of a respective one of the at least one substrate holder.

9. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the shaftless drive section includes seals for sealing the stator from an environment in which the at least one arm link operates.

10. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 9 , wherein each rotor includes magnets for interfacing with a respective stator wherein the drive section includes seals for sealing the magnets of the rotor from an environment in which the at least one arm link operates.

11. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a height of the shaftless drive section is decoupled from a Z-travel of the substrate transport apparatus.

12. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an encoder interfacing with each of the stacked drive motors, the encoder including a sensor system and at least one scale, the sensor system being mounted to the fixed post and the scale being integrated into the rotor of a respective one of the stacked drive motors such that an interface plane between the sensor system and scale is arranged at an angle relative to an interface plane between the stator and the rotor of the respective one of the stacked drive motors.

13. A substrate transport apparatus comprising:
a frame;
at least one arm link rotatably connected to the frame; and
a shaftless distributed drive section disposed substantially within the at least one arm link, the shaftless distributed drive section including at least two drive motors where one of the at least two drive motors is connected to the at least one arm link for rotating the at least one arm link relative to the frame, and the at least two drive motors are shaftless motors arranged within the at least one arm link side by side along a common horizontal plane.

14. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 13 , wherein each of the at least two drive motors includes a stator and a rotor substantially peripherally surrounding the stator.

15. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 13 , further comprising:
a second drive section disposed at least partially within the frame and configured to linearly move the at least one arm link in a direction substantially perpendicular to a direction of extension or retraction of the at least one arm link.

16. A substrate transport apparatus comprising:
a frame;
at least one arm rotatably connected to the frame and having at least an upper arm and a forearm; and
a shaftless drive section connected to the frame, the shaftless drive section including at least one drive motor, wherein the at least one drive motor is a shaftless motor including a stator having at least two nested stator coils, an inner rotor substantially peripherally surrounded by the stator and an outer rotor substantially peripherally surrounding the stator such that the inner rotor is connected to the forearm for rotating the forearm and the outer rotor is connected to the upper arm for rotating the upper arm.

17. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 16 , further comprising:
a second drive section disposed at least partially within the frame and configured to linearly move the at least one arm link in a direction substantially normal to a plane containing a direction of extension or retraction of the at least one arm link.

Assignees

• Caveney Robert T
• Brooks Automation Inc

Inventors

• Caveney Robert T

Classifications

• H10P72/3302

  Mechanical parts of transfer devices · CPC title

• B25J9/126 Primary

  Rotary actuators · CPC title

• B25J11/0095 Primary

  Manipulators transporting wafers · CPC title

• Y10S901/23

  Electric motor · CPC title

• Y10T74/20317

  including electric motor · CPC title