Abstract: Proposed is an overhead transportation system for transporting FOUPs in the environment of semiconductor production. The system includes a pair of rails and a hoist travelling along the rails on two pairs of independently controlled wheels. The wheels are driven from in-wheel drive motors and are provided with lateral guide rollers that prevent the wheels from contact with the side walls of the rails. The FOUP gripper mechanism for grasping FOUPs is suspended from the hoist on multifunctional electrically conductive straps, which raise a gripper-grasped FOUP by pulling it up together with the lower pulleys of the strap-guiding unit. The gripper mechanism is attached to a swinging member rotationally installed on a slider, which is laterally moveable from the hoist toward a work station. The in-wheel motors receive power from batteries on the hoist. Other drives are fed from an external source switched in to the hoist on work stations.

Abstract: Proposed is an overhead transportation system for transporting FOUPs in the environment of semiconductor production. The system includes a pair of rails and a hoist travelling along the rails on two pairs of independently controlled wheels. The wheels are driven from in-wheel drive motors and are provided with lateral guide rollers that prevent the wheels from contact with the side walls of the rails. The FOUP gripper mechanism for grasping FOUPs is suspended from the hoist on multifunctional electrically conductive straps, which raise a gripper-grasped FOUP by pulling it up together with the lower pulleys of the strap-guiding unit. The gripper mechanism is attached to a swinging member rotationally installed on a slider, which is laterally moveable from the hoist toward a work station. The in-wheel motors receive power from batteries on the hoist. Other drives are fed from an external source switched in to the hoist on work stations.

Abstract: An industrial wedge-type gripper mechanism for gripping or releasing objects that has a housing with a piston of a pneumatic cylinder moveable in the housing in longitudinal direction of the housing and a plurality of gripper jaw holders that slide in the housing in a radial or transverse direction and that support the gripper jaws. The gripper jaw holders have inclined slots, and the piston of the pneumatic cylinder is associated with a member that supports rolling bearings rolling and sliding in the inclined slots so that with reciprocations of the piston the rolling bearings exert a camming or wedging action on the walls of the inclined slots and thus cause the gripper jaw holders and thus the gripper jaws to perform gripping or releasing action on the objects.

Abstract: Proposed is a universal gripping and suction chuck for use as an interchangeable end effector of a robot arm of a robotic station capable of picking up, transporting, and handling objects having colors and outlines. The chuck housing contains elements of a vacuum system for holding the object by vacuum suction force, a vortex system for holding the objects in a non-contact manner in a state of levitation, and a mechanical edge gripper. The vacuum system, the vortex system, and the mechanical edge gripper can be selectively activated by commands from the central processing system that receives a signal recognition signal, object presence/absence signal and/or object approaching signal from respective sensors and depending on the type of the object recognized by the respective sensor. As a result, the chuck can pick up and handle such different objects as solid semiconductor wafer, paper or fabric interleaves, or small-diameter rings.

Abstract: Proposed is a universal gripping and suction chuck for use as an interchangeable end effector of a robot arm of a robotic station capable of picking up, transporting, and handling objects having colors and outlines. The chuck housing contains elements of a vacuum system for holding the object by vacuum suction force, a vortex system for holding the objects in a non-contact manner in a state of levitation, and a mechanical edge gripper. The vacuum system, the vortex system, and the mechanical edge gripper can be selectively activated by commands from the central processing system that receives a signal recognition signal, object presence/absence signal and/or object approaching signal from respective sensors and depending on the type of the object recognized by the respective sensor. As a result, the chuck can pick up and handle such different objects as solid semiconductor wafer, paper or fabric interleaves, or small-diameter rings.

Abstract: Provided is a robotic station with a self-teaching system. Operation of this system is automatically initiated for eliminating an accumulated error upon completion of a given number of processing cycles or expiration of a given time. The teaching system has a stationary tactile sensor and a stationary reference object the coordinates of which are known and stored in the memory of the CPU. The second stationary reference object is used for defining an operational coordinate system. In the teaching operation, the positions of all working tools, objects, and processing units are determined in the operational coordinate system by sequentially seeking and touching the searchable tools, objects and units with a changeable tactile sensor for recording their coordinates in the CPU and for subsequent use of these coordinates in object processing operations.

Abstract: Proposed is a method of teaching an industrial robotic station with elimination of errors of assembling and installation as well as errors accumulated during operation for a predetermined operation time or a number of operation cycles. The method consists of providing a robotic station with a coordinate system fixed relative to the frame and all other stationary components including at least two reference objects, one of which is a tactile sensor and another is a hard body such as a hard spherical ball. A position of the center of the hard precision in the fixed coordinate system of the robotic station is determined via contact with a changeable tactile sensor attached to the coupling of the robot arm and is assumed as center of coordinates of an operative coordinate system which is then used for moving the robot arm to working positions memorized in a CPU and in accordance with a memorized sequence.

Abstract: Proposed is a method of handling and transporting flat objects such as semiconductor wafers or wafer substrates on a robotic station by means of a robot assembly equipped with a dual-gripper end effector. Since the end effector has two independently operating flat-object grippers which are arranged at an angle, e.g., of 90° to each other and which are rotatable simultaneously around a common axis of rotation, it becomes possible to hold two flat objects alternatively in two different planes and to exclude a big swing of the robot arm in the same plane. This allows manipulation with the flat objects in a small space. While one of the objects is being placed into a processing unit by one of the grippers, another wafer is held in a waiting position by the second gripper so that after the first wafer is loaded into an appropriate unit, the second wafer can be quickly turned into the working position and the first gripper into the waiting position.

Abstract: Devices and methods of the invention can be used in many industries, including, but not limited to, utilities, agriculture, food, textile, pharmaceutical, photovoltaic and semiconductor, medical devices, chemical and petro-chemical, material science, and defense, where monitoring and/or analysis of various properties of materials are desired. Sensors and methods of using same are provided for measuring at least one impedance of an object under test (or a tested object) at a predetermined frequency and/or a predetermined frequency range, particularly where resonance conditions are provided for such measurement.

Abstract: Devices and methods of the invention can be used in many industries, including: utilities, agriculture, food, textile, pharmaceutical, photovoltaic and semiconductor, medical devices, chemical and petro-chemical, material science, and defense, where monitoring and/or analysis of various properties of materials are desired.

Abstract: An apparatus for foam-assisted cleaning comprising a closable container with a funnel-shaped working chamber formed between the surface of the semiconductor wafer and the tapered base plate. The apparatus is provided with a fluid supply unit that incorporates a foam generator in the form of conical body with a flat surface on a wider end face of the conical body. This flat surface functions as a deflector for jets of neutral gas ejected onto the deflector and reflected therefrom into the interior of the fluid supply body filled with a foamable liquid. The jets of neutral gas create a zone of reduced pressure that generates gas bubbles which form the foam. The latter is displaced from the foam generator into the working chamber through a Bernoulli nozzle formed by the tip of the conical body and the outlet opening of the foam generator. The foam is formed from de-ionized water, isopropyl alcohol, and, if necessary, a surfactant.

Abstract: A foam-assisted wafer-cleaning and drying method and apparatus based on forming a funnel-shaped space between the base plate of the apparatus and the wafer to be cleaned and supplying a foam cleaning liquid to the aforementioned space through the central opening of the base plate for displacing the cleaning liquid foam consisting of a plurality of bubbles from the center of the wafer toward the wafer periphery with a constant speed of movement of the bubbles provided by gradually decrease of distance from the base plate to the wafer in the radial outward direction from the center of the wafer. The nanoparticles of contaminants are caught with a surface-tension force developed by bubble meniscuses on the wafer surface.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for coating the inner walls of polymer-made wafer containers with a thin silicon dioxide barrier film, which is characterized by good washability and possesses high scratch-resistant and wear-resistant properties. In compliance with requirements of high purity, the barrier layer also protects the surfaces of semiconductor wafers from volatile substances of polymer material of the container walls. The apparatus comprises a base plate and an RF antenna unit that is inserted into the preliminarily sealed and evacuated container. The apparatus is connected to the front side of the container through a standard mechanical interface provided on the facing side of the apparatus. The barrier layer is deposited with the use of a plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor-deposition process as a result of a plasma-chemical reaction in a working gas comprising a mixture of silane with excess oxygen.

Abstract: A wafer container made from a polymer material with inner walls of the container coated with a thin easily washable wear-resistant and scratch-resistant barrier layer of SiO2 for preventing penetration of products of diffusion of polymers, such as free radicals, into the interior space of the carrier that retains a wafer. The SiO2 coatings on the walls of the container are applied by the PECVD process. The wafer container of the invention can be manufactured at low cost by molding it from a less expensive and lower grade polymer.

Abstract: An electric motor operating on the principle of conversion of inverse piezoelectric oscillations into continuous rotation. The motor has a stator having a flange that on a bearing rotatingly supports a shaft with a cup-shaped stator attached to the shaft. The flange also supports a ring-shaped piezoelectric element, the outer surface of which is embraced with an elastic band having radial outward blades. The blades abut the inner surface of the rotor and are inclined at an angle that in the point of contact between the tips of the blades and the rotor provides development of a force component in the direction of the rotation of the rotor. The ring-shaped piezoelectric element is fitted onto a collet that compensates for contractions and expansions of the piezoelectric element under the inverse piezoelectric effect.

Abstract: A wafer gripping mechanism of the invention comprises a thin flat body having one linearly moveable and rotating finger for gripping an edge of the flat object and a pair of soft withdrawable object supporting pads. A distinguishing feature of the mechanism of the invention is that the wafer supporting pads are withdrawable for placing the pads into position where they do not project beyond the outlines of the external surface of the insertable portion of the gripper. The absence of elements projecting from the surface of the gripper portion insertable into narrow spaces with high speed protects the gripping mechanism, wafer, chuck, etc. from damage due to possible collision. All the drive and actuation mechanisms that are used for rotation and axial movement of the gripping finger, as well as for rotation of the withdrawable pads are enclosed in a thin hollow casing made from a thin and light-weight sheet metal.

Abstract: A precision soft-touch gripping mechanism has a mounting plate attached to a robot arm. The plate supports a stepper motor. The output shaft of the stepper motor is connected through a spring to an elongated finger that slides in a central longitudinal slot of the plate and supports a first wafer gripping post, while on the end opposite to the first wafer gripping post the mounting plate pivotally supports two L-shaped fingers with a second and third wafer gripping posts on their respective ends. The mounting plate in combination with the first sliding finger and two pivotal fingers forms the end effector of the robot arm which is thin enough for insertion into a wafer-holding slot of a wafer cassette. The end effector is equipped with a mapping sensor for detecting the presence or absence of the preceding wafer, wafer position sensors for determining positions of the wafer with respect to the end effector, and force sensors for controlling the wafer gripping force.

Abstract: The griping mechanism of the present invention comprises a thin flat body having two linearly moveable side fingers and a pair of rotating and linearly moveable distal fingers. In contrast to gripper of conventional design, the gripping mechanism of the invention is positioned over the object. In spite of an overhead position, the gripper is contamination-free since it has a completely closed design. In the vicinity of the gripping fingers, the mechanism is provided with soft edge-supporting pads having tapered surfaces for self-alignment and centering of the circular objects. The pads also eliminate surface contact between the wafer and the surface of the gripper body. The overhead position of the gripper makes it possible to simplify the construction of a wafer-holding chuck, e.g., on wafer processing stations.

Abstract: An apparatus for measuring thickness in super-thin films consists of a special resonator unit in the form of an open-bottom cylinder which is connected to a microwave swept frequency microwave source via a decoupler and a matching unit installed in a waveguide that connects the resonator unit with the microwave source. The apparatus operates on the principle that thin metal film F, the thickness of which is to be measured, does not contact the end face of the open bottom of the cylindrical resonator sensor unit and functions as a bottom of the cylindrical body. The design of the resonator excludes generation of modes other than the resonance mode and provides the highest possible Q-factor. As the conductivity directly related to the film thickness, it is understood that measurement of the film thickness is reduced to measurement of the resonance peak amplitudes.

Abstract: A precision soft-touch end effector has a mounting plate attached to a robot arm. The plate supports a stepper motor. The output shaft of the stepper motor is connected through a spring to an elongated finger that slides in a central longitudinal slot of the plate and supports a first wafer gripping post, while on the end opposite to the first wafer gripping post the mounting plate pivotally supports two L-shaped fingers with a second and third wafer gripping posts on their respective ends. The mounting plate in combination with the first sliding finger and two pivotal fingers forms the end effector of the robot arm which is thin enough for insertion into a wafer-holding slot of a wafer cassette. The end effector is equipped with a mapping sensor for detecting the presence or absence of the preceding wafer, wafer position sensors for determining positions of the wafer with respect to the end effector, and force sensors for controlling the wafer gripping force.