Patents Examined by Michael A Gump
  • Patent number: 11938586
    Abstract: A slurry monitoring device, a CMP system and a method of in-line monitoring a slurry are provided. The slurry monitoring device incudes a slurry metrology cell, a plurality of light sources and at least one optical detector. The slurry metrology cell is configured to accommodating a slurry. The light sources are configured to emit light beams on the slurry in the slurry metrology cell. The light sources include a first light source configured to emit a first light beam having a first wavelength, and a second light source configured to emit a second light beam having a second wavelength longer than the first wavelength. The at least one optical detector is configured to detect an intensity of the light beams scattered by abrasive particles in the slurry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY LTD.
    Inventors: Chwen Yu, Ting-Wen Chen, Chi Wen Kuo
  • Patent number: 11931852
    Abstract: The present disclosure discloses a device for cutting connection of multi-piece module electrode which includes a stand, the stand is provided with a workbench and the workbench is connected with a height adjusting device. The device further includes an angle grinding device, the angle grinding device includes a polishing shaft and an angle grinder, the angle grinder is arranged on the polishing shaft, and the angle grinding device is provided with a saw blade. According to the characteristics of the module electrode, the angle grinding device is matched with the workbench to implement simultaneous electrode disconnecting operation of multiple electrodes of the module, so that the device not only has higher efficiency and better cutting effect, but also is suitable for universal saw blades, saves the cost, and is safer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignees: HUNAN BRUNP EV RECYCLING CO., LTD., GUANGDONG BRUNP RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD., HUNAN BRUNP RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Xiaolin Jiang, Changdong Li
  • Patent number: 11931849
    Abstract: A blocking device and method for mounting a leap block to a lens by a lifting/lowering mechanism using a magnet and a wire is described comprising a blocking device housing having a guide; a movable leap block attachment part mounted on the guide of the housing; a spring having a lower end supporting the attachment part and an upper end supporting the blocking device housing, the spring pushing the attachment part downward, so that the attachment part protrudes below the lower end of the blocking device housing; a wire having one end connected to a pulley and the other end connected to the attachment part, so the wire pulling the attachment part upward when the pulley rotates; a leap block attached to the lower end of the attachment part by magnets; and a blocking arm coupled to the housing and to move the housing up and down.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: HUVITZ CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Dong Kun Oh, Jin Ho Kim
  • Patent number: 11931860
    Abstract: A polishing apparatus includes a polishing station to hold a polishing pad, a carrier head to hold a substrate in contact with a polishing pad at the polishing station, a camera positioned to capture an image of a lower surface of a consumable part when the consumable part moves away from the polishing pad, and a controller configured to perform an image processing algorithm on the image to determine whether the consumable part is damaged. The consumable part can be a retaining ring on a carrier head, or a conditioner disk on a conditioner head.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas H. Osterheld, Dominic J. Benvegnu
  • Patent number: 11930987
    Abstract: A hand vacuum cleaner has an upper end, a lower end, an air flow passage, a main body with a handle, an air treatment member, an on board energy storage member, and a suction motor. The on board energy storage member is positioned in the air flow passage downstream of the air treatment member. The suction motor is provided in the air flow passage downstream of the energy storage member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: Omachron Intellectual Property Inc.
    Inventor: Wayne Ernest Conrad
  • Patent number: 11911867
    Abstract: A polishing apparatus which can measure a film thickness with high accuracy without affecting a polishing rate of a wafer is disclosed. The polishing apparatus includes: a polishing head configured to press a wafer against a polishing pad; an illuminating fiber having a distal end disposed in a flow passage formed in the polishing table; a spectrometer configured to resolve reflected light from the wafer in accordance with wavelength and measure an intensity of the reflected light at each of the wavelengths; a light-receiving fiber having a distal end disposed in the flow passage; a liquid supply line communicating with the flow passage; a gas supply line communicating with the flow passage; a liquid supply valve attached to the liquid supply line; a gas supply valve attached to the gas supply line; and an operation controller configured to control operations of the liquid supply valve and the gas supply valve.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: EBARA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Toshifumi Kimba, Masaki Kinoshita, Yoichi Shiokawa
  • Patent number: 11904432
    Abstract: A rotation controlling section of a control unit calculates a maximum thicknesswise difference in a wafer by using a noncontact thickness measuring instrument, and if the maximum thicknesswise difference exceeds a tolerance, relatively changes a rotational speed of a chuck table relative to a rotational speed of a spindle. This can shift a rotational speed ratio, which is a ratio between the rotational speed of the spindle and the rotational speed of the chuck table, from an integer. Therefore, the maximum thicknesswise difference can be made small through spark-out processing. As a result, cyclic variations in thickness value of the wafer are reduced, enabling planarization of a ground surface of the wafer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: DISCO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Satoru Fujimura, Keita Nakamura, Shinji Yamashita
  • Patent number: 11904433
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a fully automatic gemstone polishing robot. An aspect of the present disclosure provides an automatic gemstone polishing robot comprising: a gemstone polishing unit, comprising a gemstone holding unit for supporting a gemstone in contact with an abrasive surface, and configured to polish said gemstone in a plurality of iterations based on a feedback signal; an image capturing unit to capture, in one or more of the plurality of iterations, at least one image of the gemstone; and an image processing unit, which when executed by one or more processors, analyzes said at least one image of the gemstone with respect to one or a plurality of gemstone parameters, wherein the image processing unit is further configured to compare the one or a plurality of analyzed gemstone parameters with one or a plurality of pre-determined gemstone parameters to generate the feedback signal to be transmitted to the gemstone polishing unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: Freedom Automation Solutions LLP
    Inventor: Ivan Nikolayevich Sytenko
  • Patent number: 11897091
    Abstract: A pawl mechanism with a bias member that biases the pawl into engagement with the drive gear. The bias member can be a tube spring disposed within a bore to bias the pawl into engagement with the drive gear while eliminating the need for a spacer, as required by prior art ratchet wrenches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Snap-on Incorporated
    Inventor: Christopher D. Thompson
  • Patent number: 11890721
    Abstract: A screw rotor lead correction calculation device includes an initial data input section configured to input an error as a distance with respect to a reference lead at each axial position of a rotor groove portion of a screw rotor, and a processing machine input correction amount/position output section configured to compute and output, based on the error as the distance input to the initial data input section, a lead correction amount with respect to the reference lead and a lead correction starting position as an axial position for starting lead correction. With this configuration, correction data for obtaining a screw rotor with a high-accuracy lead can be obtained from a lead error with respect to a reference lead in a screw rotor obtained by ground finish of the material of the screw rotor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: HITACHI-JOHNSON CONTROLS AIR CONDITIONING, INC.
    Inventors: Toshio Yamanaka, Koji Utsumi, Hisashi Aoki, Yoshiyuki Yamada, Hidetaro Kayanuma
  • Patent number: 11890716
    Abstract: An accuracy of detecting a slip out of a substrate from a top ring is improved. A polishing unit 300 includes a polishing table 350, a top ring 302, a light emitting member 371, a slip-out detector 370, and an elimination mechanism 380. A polishing pad 352 that polishes a substrate WF is attached to the polishing table 350. The top ring 302 holds the substrate WF to press the substrate WF against the polishing pad 352. The light emitting member 371 emits a light to a detection area 372 on the polishing pad 352. The slip-out detector 370 detects a slip out of the substrate WF from the top ring 302 based on the light reflected from the detection area 372. The elimination mechanism 380 eliminates a polishing liquid flowing into the detection area 372.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: EBARA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Akihiro Yazawa, Kenichi Kobayashi, Asagi Matsugu
  • Patent number: 11878392
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for the hydro-erosive processing of components, in which hydro-erosive grinding a liquid containing grinding particles flows over surfaces of the component (1), in a device having a channel (3), through which the liquid containing grinding particles flows under pressure and in which the component (1) to be ground is held and in which a valve (5) is positioned upstream of the component (1) in the flow direction, by means of which valve the flow of the liquid can be adjusted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2024
    Assignee: BASF SE
    Inventor: Mathias Weickert
  • Patent number: 11858092
    Abstract: A substrate processing method of thinning a substrate having a protective tape attached on a front surface thereof includes measuring a thickness of the protective tape; and grinding, by using a grinder, a rear surface of the substrate held by a substrate holder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventors: Munehisa Kodama, Takahiro Sakamoto
  • Patent number: 11858090
    Abstract: After a workpiece unit has been delivered from a cassette and before the workpiece unit is delivered to a chuck table, a value of the thickness of the workpiece unit is recognized on the basis of a result of a measurement performed by a measuring unit. The value of the thickness of the workpiece unit is represented by the sum of values of respective thicknesses of a workpiece and a tape affixed thereto. On the basis of the result of the measurement performed by the measuring unit, it is possible to decide whether or not the tape affixed to the workpiece has a desired thickness, i.e., whether the tape is of a desired type or not. As a result, a workpiece with an inadequate tape affixed thereto is prevented from being ground.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: DISCO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazuma Sekiya
  • Patent number: 11858087
    Abstract: There is provided a grinding apparatus including a chuck table configured to hold a workpiece, a grinding unit configured to grind the workpiece held by the chuck table by grinding stones fixed to a grinding wheel, a grinding feed mechanism configured to raise or lower the grinding unit, a reading unit configured to read a thickness of a base which thickness is recorded on a recording medium on which the thickness of the base of the grinding wheel is recorded, a base thickness storage section configured to store the thickness of the base which thickness is read by the reading unit, and a detecting unit configured to make the grinding unit perform processing by the grinding feed mechanism, and detect a fitting surface of a mount and the lower surface of a grinding stone of the grinding wheel fitted to the mount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: DISCO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Jiro Genozono
  • Patent number: 11850698
    Abstract: An automatic knife sharpening machine may include a vice to grip a blade of a knife and a pair of grind wheels to grind material from the blade. The machine may include a scanner to determine a profile of an edge of the blade, and a sharpness sensor to determine a sharpness level of the edge. The machine may include a controller. The controller may perform a first sharpening pass on the knife by moving the grind wheels into contact with the blade, and advancing the grind wheels longitudinally along the blade from adjacent the vice towards a tip of the blade with the grind wheels in contact with the blade. The controller may determine, using the sharpness sensor, the sharpness level of the edge after the first sharpening pass and perform at least one second sharpening pass when the determined sharpness level is less than a threshold sharpness level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: The Hillman Group, Inc.
    Inventors: Whitfield Janes Fowler, Sean Stone, Ari Bennett, Jeffrey Kastenbaum, David Frederick Lyons, Dmitriy Kolchin
  • Patent number: 11833636
    Abstract: To measure thickness in a polishing treatment more efficiently. A substrate polishing apparatus comprises a rotatably configured polishing table provided with a sensor that outputs a signal related to a thickness, a rotatably configured polishing head that faces the polishing table, a substrate being attachable to a face of the polishing head that faces the polishing table, and a controller. The controller acquires a signal from the sensor when the sensor passes over a surface to be polished of the substrate, specifies an orbit of the sensor with respect to the substrate on a basis of a profile of the signal, calculates a thickness of the substrate at each point on the orbit on a basis of the signal, and creates a thickness map on a basis of the calculated thickness at each point on a plurality of orbits of the sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: EBARA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Katsuhide Watanabe, Yoichi Shiokawa, Keita Yagi, Akira Nakamura
  • Patent number: 11819178
    Abstract: A hand vacuum cleaner has an airflow path from an air inlet to a clean air outlet with an air treatment member and a fan and motor assembly in the air flow path. The hand vacuum cleaner has a cleaner body and a handle having a hand grip portion. The hand vacuum cleaner also includes a plurality of batteries. A portion of the motor and fan assembly and/or a portion of a filter component can be positioned between at least some of the batteries. The batteries may be contained in a removable storage chamber. The storage chamber may be removably mounted to the hand vacuum cleaner around at least a portion of a filter and/or fan and motor assembly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Assignee: Omachron Intellectual Property Inc.
    Inventor: Wayne Ernest Conrad
  • Patent number: 11787010
    Abstract: Grinding a surface of a workpieces is accomplished with a grinding machine having at least two grinding units. First, a target structure of the surface to be achieved is provided. Then, using predetermined grinding parameters, a first of the two grinding units is used to grind the surface of the structure. Then, the surface of the actual structure is captured and compared to the target structure. Based on the comparison, the grinding parameters are adjusted and the surface is then ground, using the adjusted parameters, with the second of the two grinding units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: KARL HEESEMANN MASCHINENFABRIK GMBH & CO. KG
    Inventor: Christoph Giese
  • Patent number: 11780099
    Abstract: Described is an apparatus for robot-aided grinding, comprising the following: a manipulator, a linear actuator, and a grinding machine which includes a rotating grinding tool and is connected to the manipulator via the linear actuator. The apparatus further comprises a protective cover that partially surrounds the rotating grinding tool, the rotating grinding tool protruding from the protective cover at least on a first side. An adjusting mechanism is provided which connects the protective cover to the grinding machine and is designed to adjust the position of the protective cover in relation to the grinding machine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: FerRobotics Compliant Robot Technology GmbH
    Inventor: Ronald Naderer