Patents Examined by Maurina Rachuba
  • Patent number: 9138861
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a two-phase cleaning element that enhances polishing pad cleaning so as to prevent wafer scratches and contamination in chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) processes. In some embodiments, the two-phase pad cleaning element comprises a first cleaning element and a second cleaning element configured to successively operate upon a section of a CMP polishing pad. The first cleaning element comprises a megasonic cleaning jet configured to utilize cavitation energy to dislodge particles embedded in the CMP polishing pad without damaging the surface of the polishing pad. The second cleaning element is configured to apply a high pressure mist, comprising two fluids, to remove by-products from the CMP polishing pad. By using megasonic cleaning to dislodge embedded particles a two-fluid mist to flush away by-products (e.g., including the dislodged embedded particles), the two-phase pad cleaning element enhances polishing pad cleaning.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2015
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jiann Lih Wu, Bo-I Lee, Huang Soon Kang, Chi-Ming Yang, Chin-Hsiang Lin
  • Patent number: 9138868
    Abstract: A tool for removing material from a surface includes a body defining a longitudinal bore and an opening connecting an outer surface of the body to the longitudinal bore. A cutting element comprising a cutting surface is dimensioned to be at least partially received by the opening. The cutting surface is configured to translate from a first position to a second position in response to a centrifugal force. In the second position the cutting surface is extended outwardly through the opening, beyond the outer surface of the body. In one example, the tool may be used to remove material, such as oxidation, from the inner walls of a cylindrical article selected from a pipe and a tube.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2015
    Assignee: ATI Properties, Inc.
    Inventors: Gary D. McDowell, Brett R. Krueger
  • Patent number: 9138851
    Abstract: Provided is a method of manufacturing a member made by stainless steel, which is capable of preventing a burr from being folded from the root and a sharp edge from being chipped. A method of manufacturing a member made by stainless steel, in which a member having a sharp edge is manufactured by grinding stainless steel, includes grinding a face which forms the sharp edge of the stainless steel in the longitudinal direction of the sharp edge, grinding both side faces, which come into contact with each other in the longitudinal direction of the sharp edge, from the non-tip-end face of the sharp edge toward a tip-end direction of the sharp edge while grinding both the side faces in the longitudinal direction of the sharp edge, and polishing the face which forms the sharp edge by moving a polishing unit in the longitudinal direction of the sharp edge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2015
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventors: Tadashi Ueda, Kazuya Kojima
  • Patent number: 9132320
    Abstract: A method and system for resurfacing one or more lacrosse balls is provided. The system includes a container, a rotatable member, and a motor. The container is configured to hold the one or more lacrosse balls. The rotatable member includes an abrasive surface configured to scuff the lacrosse balls while in the container, The motor includes a drive shaft coupled to the rotatable member and configured to facilitate rotation of the rotatable member. With this arrangement, the lacrosse balls are positioned over the abrasive surface such that, upon rotation of the rotatable member the abrasive surface scuffs the lacrosse balls to, thereby, resurface the balls.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2015
    Assignee: LAX DR., LLC
    Inventors: Eugene M. McNall, Charles W. McNall
  • Patent number: 9126304
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a polishing pad which enables high accuracy optical end-point detection in a state where polishing is carrying out, and which can prevent slurry leakage from a polishing layer to a cushion layer even in the case of being used for a long period. Another object is to provide a method for producing a semiconductor device using the polishing pad. The present invention relates to a polishing pad in which a polishing layer having a polishing region and a light-transmitting region, and a cushion layer having a through hole are laminated via a double-sided adhesive sheet such that the light-transmitting region and the through hole are laid one upon another, wherein a transparent member is stuck on an adhesive layer of the double-sided adhesive sheet in the through hole.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2015
    Assignee: TOYO TIRE & RUBBER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Tsuyoshi Kimura
  • Patent number: 9126302
    Abstract: A device for sharpening one or more cutting edges of a dental curette has a base support with a frame articulated thereon, and at least one sharpening guide. The frame supports a grinding wheel rotationally driven by a motor and a sharpening guide support intended to receive the sharpening guide(s). The guide includes at least one indicator in the form of a line marked on the guide, whose angle with the horizontal being between 10° and 50° but preferably equal to 10°, 20° or 30° and corresponding to the type of dental curette to be sharpened. The sharpening guide(s) can move with respect to the support, and the support and/or the guide include(s) indexing and positioning elements determining indexing positions of the guide on the support, each indexing position corresponding to a different indicator. A method of sharpening one or more cutting edges, and a sharpening guide are described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2015
    Inventor: Arnold Deppeler
  • Patent number: 9114466
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for machining a workpiece, preferably of a gear, with a multiple thread worm-shaped cutting tool with several parallel running helical and ridge-shaped cutting edges. To obtain a higher quality of the machining operation the invention proposes the following steps for the method: a) Bringing the cutting tool with the workpiece into mesh by inserting of a first helical cutting edge of the cutting tool in a first gap of the workpiece which has to be machined or has to be produced and machining of the workpiece with the cutting tool in this contact situation; b) Bringing the cutting tool and the workpiece out of mesh; c) Bringing the cutting tool with the workpiece again into mesh by inserting of the first helical cutting edge of the cutting tool in a second gap of the workpiece which is different from the first gap and machining of the workpiece with the cutting tool.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Assignees: KAPP GMBH, NILES WERKZEUGMASCHINEN GMBH
    Inventor: Frank Mueller
  • Patent number: 9109339
    Abstract: A cutting device for cutting a pile, including a body part, for connecting the cutting device to a working machine and a gripper attached to the body part to drive the cutting device around the pile to be cut, the gripping means having at least two opposite gripping parts to obtain a grip from the pile and to release the gripper from the grips. The cutting device includes at least two sawing parts arranged to move to a sawing position and to a secure position, and the cutting device having a saw connected to the sawing parts to perform sawing operation when at least one sawing part is in the sawing position, and the cutting device includes elastic means to adapt to forces, which arises during sawing movement of the a saw. The saw is arranged to move during the sawing movement substantially horizontally to the pile being cut.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2015
    Assignee: MOTOCUT OY
    Inventor: Teppei Morimoto
  • Patent number: 9102079
    Abstract: The invention relates to equipment and related methods for producing concrete blocks. The equipment and methods described herein utilize splitting assemblies having larger projections and/or smaller projections or peaks disposed on at least one side of a splitting line and which engage the workpiece as it is split into at least two pieces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2015
    Assignee: Anchor Wall Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Ronald J. Scherer
  • Patent number: 9102039
    Abstract: An abrasive article comprising: a first body comprising a first bond material having abrasive particles contained within the first bond material, wherein the first body comprising the first bond material comprises a ratio of VAG(1)/VBM(1) of at least about 1.3; a second body comprising a second bond material having abrasive particles contained within the second bond material, wherein the second body comprising the second bond material comprises a ratio of VAG(2)/VBM(2) of less than about 1.3, and wherein VAG is a volume percent of abrasive particles within a total volume of the first or second body respectively and VBM is a volume percent of the first or second bond material within the total volume of the first or second body respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2015
    Assignees: Saint-Gobain Abrasives, Inc., Saint-Gobain Abrasifs
    Inventors: Srinivasan Ramanath, Kenneth A. Saucier, Rachana Upadhyay, Lenny C. Sales, Marc A. Lamoureux, Matthew F. Jacob, Cong Wang
  • Patent number: 9079283
    Abstract: Methods and apparatuses are used for optically measuring by interferometry the thickness (T) of an object (2) such as a slice of semiconductor material. Readings of the object thickness by optical interferometry are carried out, rough thickness values (RTW) are obtained and frequencies, indicating how often the rough thickness values occur, are evaluated. A limited set of adjacent rough thickness values whose frequency integration or summation represents an absolute maximum is identified, and the actual value of the thickness of the object is determined as a function of the rough thickness values belonging to said limited set of values. The rough thickness values can be divided up into classes (C) with corresponding frequencies (F), and in this case, a preponderant group (Gmax) of thickness classes is identified as the above-mentioned limited set of adjacent rough thickness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2015
    Assignee: MARPOSS SOCIETA′ PER AZIONI
    Inventors: Dino Galletti, Domenico Malpezzi
  • Patent number: 9079285
    Abstract: A polishing device for zone polishing of optical lenses with a tilting base part for direct or indirect holding of a polishing pad, wherein the base part for driving purposes is rotationally driven and connected to a spindle shaft, rotationally mounted, of a polishing spindle, and a rotary leadthrough is provided, by which the feeding of polishing compound in a polishing compound channel of the base part is assured, wherein the rotary leadthrough is directly or indirectly arranged on the spindle shaft and the base part can tilt relative to the rotary leadthrough. The rotary leadthrough stands in a flow connection with the base part via a flexible fluid connection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2015
    Assignee: SCHEIDER GMBH & CO. KG
    Inventors: Klaus Krämer, Ulf Börner, Gunter Schneider
  • Patent number: 9079282
    Abstract: A machine system and method for simultaneously lapping a first machining surface of a hollow shaft and an opposing second machining surface of the hollow shaft, the machine system having a brake subsystem for securing the hollow shaft in a relatively stationary position while a drive subsystem rotates a lapping tool within the hollow shaft such that the lapping tool laps the first machining surface with an abrasive surface of a top lap while simultaneously lapping the second machining surface with an abrasive surface of a bottom lap.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2015
    Assignee: Textron Innovations Inc.
    Inventors: Royce Moore, Monte Smith, Richard Pae, Greg Turner
  • Patent number: 9073171
    Abstract: A polisher, a pressure plate (20) of the polisher, and a method of polishing are disclosed. The pressure plate (20) includes a main body, an air bag (50) mounted to one surface of the main body to adjust a pressure applied from the main body to a polishing object, and a pad (16b) having a ring shape, mounted along a circumference of the one surface of the main body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: LG SILTRON INC.
    Inventors: Hong Gil Kim, Pan Gi Min
  • Patent number: 9073173
    Abstract: A polishing pad shape measured by a polishing pad shape measuring apparatus is modified into a target shape of a polishing pad by using a dressing tool so that a wafer has a desired surface shape. The invention is a method for shape modification of a polishing pad 14 for polishing a workpiece into a desired surface shape, comprising: a measurement step S9 of measuring a polishing pad shape in a state of being attached to a plate 12 by using a polishing pad shape measuring apparatus 10; a condition determination step S10 of selecting a dressing recipe capable of polishing the workpiece into a desired surface shape from a plurality of pre-provided dressing recipes based on the measurement result in the measurement step S9; and a shape modification step S11 of dressing the polishing pad 14 by using the dressing recipe determined in the condition determination step S10.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: SUMCO Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroshi Takai, Yuichi Nakayoshi
  • Patent number: 9067294
    Abstract: An example coating removal apparatus for a component includes a table having a first platform disposed along an axis. The platform is arranged to receive at least one fixture for holding a corresponding component. The coating removal apparatus also includes a removal device having a web. The table is slidably moveable in an axial direction and configured to move the fixture a pre-determined distance such that at least one portion of the component contacts the web to remove a coating of the component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2015
    Assignee: UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Robert C. Everett, Jason W. Pinckert
  • Patent number: 9067301
    Abstract: A CMP pad conditioner comprises a plurality of abrasive segments. Each abrasive segment includes a segment blank and an abrasive layer attached to the segment blank, the abrasive layer including a superhard abrasive material. A pad conditioner substrate is also provided. Each of the plurality of abrasive segments is permanently affixed to the pad conditioner substrate in an orientation that enables removal of material from a CMP pad by the abrasive layer as the pad conditioner and the CMP pad are moved relative to one another.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2015
    Inventor: Chien-Min Sung
  • Patent number: 9061396
    Abstract: Abrasive blasting control method in which a control device (10) is used including at least a swing-arm (13) and in which the movement of the swing-arm (13) is controlled from the exterior of the casing of the wheel from its rest position to its second position in which said swing arm (13) is subjected to a part of the jet of abrasives leaving the wheel (1).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: ROSLER HOLDING GMBH & CO. KG
    Inventors: Leon Rutten, Jean Rutten
  • Patent number: 9061326
    Abstract: A tool and method for cleaning the interior of a freight container of ISO type. The tool having a framework, a robot movably connected to the framework and provided with a nozzle for supplying dry ice. The robot and the nozzle are adapted to clean the interior of the container by means of dry ice blasting. An actuating unit is arranged to move the robot between the framework and the interior of the container. The tool is a portable unit and has a size and a design that allows a truck adapted for gripping and carrying freight containers of ISO type to grip and carry the tool in order to move the tool to and from the container to be cleaned.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: IBC ROBOTICS AB
    Inventors: Kerstin Eriksson, Erik Jansson, Anders Thunell, Ingemar Reyier
  • Patent number: 9059553
    Abstract: Aspects of the invention are directed to an apparatus for cleaning electrical terminals. The apparatus comprises a first arm and a second arm. The first arm includes a first cleaning portion with a first upper face and a first lower face. Each of the first upper face and the first lower face are substantially flat and coated with an abrasive. In a similar manner, the second arm includes a second cleaning portion with a second upper face and a second lower face. Here again, each of the second upper face and the second lower face are substantially flat and coated with an abrasive. The second arm is pivotally coupled to the first arm, making the apparatus manually configurable into an aligned configuration in which the first lower face faces the second upper face.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2015
    Inventors: Ian R. Vinci, Peter Vinci