Substrate Carrier Centering Lugs for Two-Sided Coating
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing substrate carriers face challenges in maintaining substrates securely centered during two-sided coating processes, leading to potential deformation and flawed coating due to temperature variations and difficulty in safe loading and unloading, which results in edge coverage and damage.
Innovation Solution
A substrate carrier design featuring supporting plates with centering lugs that have a bevel or curved surface extending from the inner wall to the supporting surface, allowing for precise centering and minimizing edge coverage, with optimized angles and curvature to facilitate easy loading and unloading while maintaining coating quality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If substrates are stored in nests during two-sided coating processes, then substrates can be transported and processed, but substrates may become deformed and coating quality deteriorates due to edge coverage
Solution Approach 1:
The nest structure is designed with differentiated local features: a flat bottom surface for stable support and elevated side walls with specific geometry (height h and width b) that create localized support zones. This local quality differentiation ensures the substrate is held firmly at critical areas while leaving the coating edges accessible, thus maintaining coating quality during transport
Solution Approach 2:
The nest incorporates rounded corners and curved transition surfaces between the bottom and side walls, eliminating sharp edges that could cause substrate deformation. The curved geometry distributes mechanical stresses evenly across the substrate, preventing deformation while maintaining secure holding during the coating process
2Manufacturing precision
If substrates are securely centered in nests, then coating precision is improved, but loading and unloading operations become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The nest design incorporates asymmetric features including offset positioning of the substrate within the nest cavity and non-uniform wall thickness distribution. This asymmetric geometry creates natural guiding surfaces that automatically center the substrate during insertion, achieving precise centering without requiring complex alignment procedures or tools
Solution Approach 2:
The rounded corners and curved surfaces of the nest create smooth guiding paths that facilitate substrate insertion and removal. The curved geometry allows the substrate to be gently guided into the correct position by simple insertion motions, making loading and unloading operations easy while ensuring precise centering
3Adaptability or versatility
If substrate carriers are subjected to temperature variations during processing, then different coating steps can be performed, but the carriers deform and substrates become misaligned
Solution Approach 1:
The nest geometry is optimized with specific dimensional relationships (height h, width b, and rounded corner radii) that create a thermally stable structure. These parameter choices ensure that thermal expansion or contraction during temperature variations does not significantly affect the substrate positioning, maintaining alignment stability across different coating process temperatures
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a substrate carrier for receiving and transporting several substrates.