Semiconductor wafer handling and transport

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9862554-B2
Application number	US-201214353153-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 26, 2012
Priority date	Oct 26, 2011
Publication date	Jan 9, 2018
Grant date	Jan 9, 2018

Abstract

A substrate processing system including at least two vertically stacked transport chambers, each of the vertically stacked transport chambers including a plurality of openings arranged to form vertical stacks of openings configured for coupling to vertically stacked process modules, at least one of the vertically stacked transport chambers includes at least one transport chamber module arranged for coupling to another transport chamber module to form a linear transport chamber and another of the at least two stacked transport chambers including at least one transport chamber module arranged for coupling to another transport chamber module to form another linear transport chamber, and a transport robot disposed in each of the transport chamber modules, where a joint of the transport robot is locationally fixed along a linear path formed by the respective linear transport chamber.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A substrate processing system comprising:
at least two vertically stacked transport chambers, each of the vertically stacked transport chambers being separate and distinct from another of the at least two vertically stacked transport chambers and including a plurality of openings arranged to form vertical stacks of side wall openings configured for coupling to vertically stacked process modules, at least one of the vertically stacked transport chambers includes at least one transport chamber module arranged for coupling to another transport chamber module to form a linear transport chamber and another of the at least two stacked transport chambers including at least one transport chamber module arranged for coupling to another transport chamber module to form another linear transport chamber separate and distinct from the linear transport chamber, where the linear transport chamber and the other linear transport chamber are separate and distinct substantially coincident with the vertical stacks of side wall openings so that each respective side wall opening of the linear transport chamber independently couples the linear transport chamber, substantially coincident with the vertical stacks of side wall openings, to the vertically stacked process modules independent from the other separate and distinct linear transport chamber substantially coincident with the vertical stacks of side wall openings; and
a transport robot disposed in each of the transport chamber modules, where a joint of the transport robot is locationally fixed along a linear path formed by the respective linear transport chamber.

2. The substrate processing system of claim 1 , wherein the transport robot includes a two degree of freedom drive with Z axis movement.

3. The substrate processing system of claim 1 , wherein each of the transport chamber modules are sealable chambers.

4. The substrate processing system of claim 1 , wherein each of the linear transport chambers includes a buffer station disposed between at least two of the transport chamber modules.

5. The substrate processing system of claim 4 , wherein the buffer station includes a substrate elevator configured to transfer substrates between each of the linear transport chambers.

6. The substrate processing system of claim 1 , wherein at least one end of each of the at least two vertically stacked transport chambers is communicably coupled to a common loading station, wherein the common loading station includes a substrate elevator for transferring substrates between each of the at least two vertically stacked transport chambers.

7. The substrate processing system of claim 1 , wherein transport robots of each of the at least two vertically stacked transport chambers include dual level transport robots that form vertically stacked substrate transfer planes within a respective one of the at least two vertically stacked transport chambers.

8. The substrate processing system of claim 7 , wherein the vertically stacked substrate transfer planes allow for bidirectional substrate travel in each of the at least two vertically stacked transport chambers.

9. The substrate processing system of claim 7 , wherein one of the vertically stacked substrate transfer planes is a return lane configured for substantially unobstructed transport of substrates.

10. The substrate processing system of claim 1 , wherein each of the at least two vertically stacked transport chambers includes lateral sides, wherein the plurality of openings are disposed on but a single lateral side of a respective one of the at least two vertically stacked transport chambers.

11. The substrate processing system of claim 1 , wherein each of the at least two vertically stacked transport chambers includes lateral sides, wherein the plurality of openings are disposed on opposite lateral sides of a respective one of the at least two vertically stacked transport chambers.

12. The substrate processing system of claim 1 , wherein one of the at least two vertically stacked transport chambers provides substrate transport in a first direction and the other of the at least two vertically stacked transport chambers provides substrate transport in a substantially opposite direction.

13. The substrate processing system of claim 1 , wherein the transport robots of a respective linear transport chamber are arranged for robot to robot substrate handoff.

14. A substrate processing system comprising:
at least two vertically stacked linear transport chambers, each of the vertically stacked linear transport chambers being separate and distinct from another of the at least two vertically stacked linear transport chambers and arranged in a respective processing level and including a plurality of chambers communicably coupled to each other to form a respective linear transport chamber that is separate and distinct from other ones of the at least two vertically stacked linear transport chambers, each respective linear transport chamber having side wall openings arranged for coupling with a process module, where the linear transport chamber and the other ones of the at least two vertically stacked linear transport chambers are separate and distinct substantially coincident with the side wall openings so that each respective side wall opening of the linear transport chamber independently couples the linear transport chamber, substantially coincident with the side wall openings, to the process module independent from the other ones of the at least two separate and distinct linear transport chambers substantially coincident with the side wall openings; and
a transport robot disposed in each of the plurality of chambers where a joint of the transport robot is locationally fixed along a linear path formed by the respective linear transport chamber.

15. The substrate processing system of claim 14 , wherein the substrate processing system is a modular system configured to accept additional processing levels stacked with existing processing levels.

16. The substrate processing system of claim 14 , wherein each of the at least two vertically stacked linear transport chambers is modular such that a length of a respective vertically stacked linear transport chamber can be extended independent of other ones of the at least two vertically stacked linear transport chambers.

17. The substrate processing system of claim 14 , wherein the openings of the at least two vertically stacked linear transport chambers are arranged to form vertical stacks of openings for coupling with vertically stacked process modules.

18. A substrate processing system comprising:
at least two vertically stacked transport chambers, each vertically stacked transport chamber being separate and distinct from another of the at least two vertically stacked transport chambers and having a plurality of side wall openings, the plurality of side wall openings of the at least two vertically stacked transport chambers being arranged to form vertical stacks of side wall openings for coupling with process cells that include vertically stacked process modules, where each vertically stacked transport chamber and the other of the at least two vertically stacked chambers are separate and distinct substantially coincident with the vertical stacks of side wall openings so that each respective side wall opening of each vertically stacked transport chamber independently couples the respective vertically stacked transport chamber, substantially coincident with the vertical stacks of side wall opening, to the vertically stacked process modules independent from

Assignees

• Brooks Automation Inc

Inventors

• Caveney Robert T

Classifications

• H10P72/3221

  Overhead conveying · CPC title

• H10P72/3208

  Changing the direction of the conveying path · CPC title

• H10P72/0464

  characterised by the construction of the transfer chamber · CPC title

• H10P72/0461

  characterised by the presence of two or more transfer chambers · CPC title

• H10P72/0458

  vertical arrangement · CPC title