Abstract: A facilities connection locator is provided for use with a support apparatus for supporting manufacturing equipment. The facilities connection locator comprises a fluid tight bucket having a bottom surface, a plurality of side walls extending upwardly from the bottom surface, and a mounting mechanism adapted to mount the fluid tight bucket to the support apparatus so that the fluid tight bucket has a fixed position relative to the support apparatus in an x y and z axes. The facilities connection locator also comprises a fluid connection port, and may comprise a vacuum connection port surrounded by a fluid tight riser. A vacuum line connection may extend through the vacuum connection port and may have a locating flange located a predetermined distance from the connection's top surface, such that coupling the locating flange to the riser fixes the height of the vacuum line connection relative to the top of the riser.

Abstract: An alignment tool, method and system are provided for aligning a robot blade in a workpiece handling system, in which the tool comprises a frame or fixture adapted to be supported by a transfer chamber support surface or other support surface in the system, in which the frame has one or more non-contact distance sensors positioned to measure the distance of a workpiece or robot blade from the sensor or a predetermined reference point or surface. In one embodiment, the frame is used to align a robot blade relative to a robot support alignment surface in a robot chamber. In another embodiment, the frame emulates a workpiece cassette and the distance sensors provide an output to align the robot blade to a cassette support alignment surface. As a consequence, accidental scratching and breakage of workpieces such as semiconductor wafers and display substrates may be reduced or eliminated.