Abstract: An apparatus for accepting and transferring at least one disk-like member is provided. The apparatus includes a pick- and place-mechanism including gripping means. In effect, the mechanism is adapted to provide pick- and/or place-cycles, which during operation provides a movement of said gripping means between an up and a down position and vice versa, whereby, in the down position, said gripping means either picks the disk-like member from a load position or places the disk-like member onto the load position.

Abstract: The invention is in particular a supporting device for relative supporting loads with respect to a base comprising a load side part, a base side part, and an intermediate part giving support to the load side part, and thus defining a supporting direction with reference to the base and the load side, including a pressure chamber bounded by chamber walls.

Abstract: Control of an active vibration isolation system with a digital controller, which includes an FPGA system (5) as the control unit. The FPGA system (5) is made up of freely programmable gate arrays with a sensor control matrix (51), which calculates axis signals in required degrees of freedom, with a control cascade block (53) for the axis signals containing several biquad filters (531, 532, 533, 534, 535), and with an output signal calculation block (55) for calculating digital actuator actuation signals. A digital signal processor (9) is connected in parallel with the FPGA system (5) in order to calculate controls with low phase loss requirements.

Abstract: An electrostatic gripper for moving wafers includes bipolar electrodes with an insulating layer of zirconium oxide, which are positioned on a circuit board. The gripper is produced by a pressing process and can be operated with a DC voltage of less than 900 V. As a result, heating of the wafer is almost completely prevented even under a vacuum.