Robot Hand Substrate Transfer Warping Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional robot hands for substrate transfer face challenges in stabilizing substrates that warp due to stress differences, leading to positional deviations and increased costs from using spring members, which also hinder throughput due to vibration and non-uniform load issues.
Innovation Solution
A robot hand design featuring a first seating surface with an upward step and a second seating surface inclined toward the center, allowing stable substrate support without springs, and an alternative design with a raised band, ensuring contact and frictional resistance to prevent positional deviations regardless of warping, and minimizing costs by eliminating the need for springs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If spring members are mounted on the robot hand to follow substrate warping, then the pads can maintain surface contact with the substrate, but the cost increases due to the large number of spring members required
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and eliminates the spring members from the system by replacing them with a flexible plate structure that inherently provides the necessary compliance through its elastic deformation, thereby reducing device complexity and cost while maintaining surface contact stability
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical state of the support structure from discrete spring elements to a continuous flexible plate with specific elastic properties, utilizing the plate's bending stiffness and elastic deformation to achieve compliance without requiring multiple individual spring components
2Reliability
If spring members are used to support warped substrates, then positional deviation is suppressed, but the spring members vibrate when the robot hand stops, requiring waiting time before substrate handover
Solution Approach 1:
By removing the spring members and replacing them with a flexible plate structure, the invention eliminates the vibration problem inherent in spring-based systems, allowing immediate substrate handover upon robot hand stopping without waiting for vibration damping, thus improving throughput
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible plate provides a simple, non-vibrating alternative to complex spring mechanisms, offering a cost-effective solution that does not require waiting time and can be easily replaced if needed, improving both productivity and cost-efficiency
3Ease of operation
If the robot hand is not held in a horizontal posture during handover, then operation flexibility is improved, but nonuniform load is applied to the springs causing substrate deviation
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the load distribution mechanism from discrete spring elements to a continuous flexible plate that can adapt to various handover postures through elastic deformation, allowing non-horizontal handover operations while maintaining uniform load distribution and substrate positioning accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible plate structure provides dynamic adaptability to different handover orientations and angles, allowing the robot hand to operate in various postures while the plate automatically adjusts its deformation pattern to maintain optimal contact and load distribution with the substrate
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The robot hand effectively stabilizes substrates with convex or concave warping without positional deviation, enabling faster transfer and reduced costs by eliminating the need for springs, allowing immediate transfer post-movement and improved throughput.
Implementation Method 1
the frictional resistance between the pads and the substrate becomes equivalent to that when the substrate is flat, and the positional deviation of the substrate will thus be suppressed
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a robot hand for substrate transfer in which the robot hand is so arranged that, even in case a substrate (S) gives rise to warping, the substrate (S) can be stably supported. On an upper surface of the robot hand there is formed a first seating surface on which is seated a lower-surface peripheral portion of the substrate (S) and, on a periphery thereof, there is formed an upwardly extended step. The step is provided with a plurality of stair-shaped stages. On an upper surface of the robot hand inwardly away from the first seating surface there is provided a second seating surface which is inclined downward toward the center of the substrate (S) such that a lower surface of the substrate (S) is seated on the second seating surface when the substrate (S) is warped downward into a concave shape.