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Substrate handling system and method

A substrate and pretreatment technology, applied in the direction of transportation and packaging, electrical components, conveyor objects, etc., can solve the problems that the system cannot meet the demand, limit the output speed, etc.

Inactive Publication Date: 2009-10-21
VARIAN SEMICON EQUIP ASSOC INC
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Disadvantages of U.S. Patent No. 7,059,817 include the need for two preprocessing stations and limited throughput speed due to different manipulators processing different wafers within the chamber
[0005] However, due to the search for higher and higher output speeds, existing systems cannot meet the demand

Method used

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  • Substrate handling system and method
  • Substrate handling system and method
  • Substrate handling system and method

Examples

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Embodiment Construction

[0014] Please refer to the diagram, figure 1 Shown is a substrate handler 10 that generally includes four loadports 30 , a mini-environment 28 , two sets of load lock chambers 24 , 26 and a vacuum chamber 12 . The small environment 28 has a dual pick trackrobot 29 . In an illustrative embodiment, each set of load lock chambers 24, 26 includes dual single wafer load locks, eg, stacked one on top of the other, for a total of four single wafer loads Interlock room. It should be appreciated, however, that each set of load lock chambers 24, 26 may include one or more load lock chambers, and each load lock chamber is used to transition the wafer from the atmosphere to a high vacuum state, and vice versa. Accordingly, each loadlock typically includes a pumping and venting system (not shown) for pumping and venting the loadlock.

[0015] The vacuum chamber 12 includes two 3-axis (vacuum) robots 18 , 20 , an aligner 16 , a transfer mechanism 22 and a processing station 14 . Notably...

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Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for handling substrates in a vacuum chamber. The system includes a first robot configured for transferring substrates from a first set of load locks to a preprocessing station, and for transferring substrates from a process platen to the first set of load locks; a second robot configured for transferring substrates from a second set of load locks to the preprocessing station, and for transferring substrates from the process platen to the second set of load locks; and a transfer mechanism for transferring substrates from the preprocessing station to the process platen.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a system and method for moving a workpiece in a chamber, and more particularly to a system and method for processing wafers in a vacuum chamber. Background technique [0002] The processing of semiconductor wafers typically requires the application of many different types of tools to complete hundreds of processing steps to fabricate microelectronic circuits. Most of these processing steps must be performed in a vacuum chamber, where wafers are processed anywhere from seconds to many minutes. Most of the processing tools act on the wafer once at a time to optimize control and reproducibility in the manufacturing environment. [0003] One of the challenges involved in manufacturing semiconductor components involves increasing the speed at which wafers are processed. Therefore, the ability to efficiently move wafers in and out of the vacuum chamber remains an ongoing challenge. [0004] Current high-speed wafer process...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(China)
IPC IPC(8): H01L21/677
CPCH01L21/67745H01L21/67201H01L21/67265H01L21/67742H01L21/68707
Inventor 詹姆斯·R·麦克廉
Owner VARIAN SEMICON EQUIP ASSOC INC