EP0209660A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Apparatus and method for automated cassette handling
Assignee: HP Inc
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Filing: 1986-05-15
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2006-05-15
Abstract
Abstract An automated cassette handler (300) is disclosed for transporting a cassette containing integrated circuit wafers (20) between first and second elevators (50,60) in a standardized mechanical interface (SMIF) system for integrated circuit porcessing. The handler is adapted to grip and transport the cassette (330) while positively pushing the wafers (20) into the cassette.
Inventors
- 👤 Barclay J. Tullis
- 👤 John S. Bailey
- 👤 D.R. Gunawardena
- 👤 Ulrich Kaempf
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-30 07:39
CPC Classifications
H; H10; H10P; H10P72/00; H10P72/30; H10P72/34; H10P72/3408; H10P72/3406; H10P72/70; H10P72/76; H10P72/7602; Y; Y10; Y10S; Y10S414/00; Y10S414/13; Y10S414/135; Y10S414/139; Y10S414/14
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 20
Claim 1
Independent Claim
217 words
An automated cassette handler for transporting integrated circuit wafers (20) held in a wafer cassette (330) within a canopy (40), said canopy coupled to a piece of integrated circuit processing equipment, characterized by: a swinger housing (345) within the canopy (40); at least two parallel swinger arms (340) coupled between the canopy (40) and the swinger housing (345) so that the swinger housing can be rotationally moved along an arc within the canopy while maintaining the swinger housing in a substantially constant plane with respect to the canopy; driver means (367, 369) coupled by a shaft (360) to the swinger arms (340) for rotating the swinger housing; gripper means (310) coupled to the swinger housing for grasping and holding the cassette while the swinger housing is rotated to lift and transport the cassette; depressor means (320) coupled to the swinger housing for retaining the wafers (20) within the cassette while the cassette is lifted and transported; first sensor means (570) coupled to the gripper means for sensing whether the cassette has been gripped by the gripper means; second sensor means (460) coupled to the depressor means for sensing the position of the drepressor means; and third sensor means (370;372) coupled to at least one of the swinger arms (340) for sensing the position of the swinger housing.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
217 words
An automated cassette handler for transporting integrated circuit wafers (20) held in a wafer cassette (330) within a canopy (40), said canopy coupled to a piece of integrated circuit processing equipment, characterized by: a swinger housing (345) within the canopy (40); at least two parallel swinger arms (340) coupled between the canopy (40) and the swinger housing (345) so that the swinger housing can be rotationally moved along an arc within the canopy while maintaining the swinger housing in a substantially constant plane with respect to the canopy; driver means (367, 369) coupled by a shaft (360) to the swinger arms (340) for rotating the swinger housing; gripper means (310) coupled to the swinger housing for grasping and holding the cassette while the swinger housing is rotated to lift and transport the cassette; depressor means (320) coupled to the swinger housing for retaining the wafers (20) within the cassette while the cassette is lifted and transported; first sensor means (570) coupled to the gripper means for sensing whether the cassette has been gripped by the gripper means; second sensor means (460) coupled to the depressor means for sensing the position of the drepressor means; and third sensor means (370;372) coupled to at least one of the swinger arms (340) for sensing the position of the swinger housing.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
21 words
An automated cassette handler as in claim 1, characterized in that the handler is a module (300) installed in the canopy.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
60 words
An automated cassette handler as in claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the canopy (40) and the piece of processing equipment have first and second guides (335,336) adapted to engage the lower surface of the wafer cassette (330), so that the wafer cassette can be removed from the guides only by lifting the wafer cassette along the rotational arc.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
73 words
An automated cassette handler as in one of the preceding claims, characterized by a switch (S) for initiating transport of the cassette (20); and controller means (C) coupled to the driver means (367,369), the gripper means (310), the depressor means (320), the first sensor means (570), the second sensor means (460), the third sensor means (370) and the switch for automatically controlling the gripping, lifting, and transporting of wafers retained within the cassette.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
47 words
An automated cassette handler as in one of the preceding claims, characterized by: pivots (365) to couple each of the swinger arms (340) to the canopy (40); and a shaft (360) extending from at least one of said pivots (365) to the exterior of the canopy (40).
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
40 words
An automated cassette handler as in one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the driver means comprises: a motor (367) mounted externally to the canopy; and a drive linkage (369) coupled between the motor (367) and the shaft (360).
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
43 words
An automated cassette handler as in one of the preceding claims, characterized in that third sensor means comprises: a flag (372) affixed to the shaft (360); and an optical sensor (370) for signaling the position of the flag relative to the canopy (40).
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
74 words
An automated cassette handler as in one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the gripper means comprises: two pivotally mounted gripper arms (530) coupled to a gripper housing (405); a tip (520) connected to a first end of each of said gripper arms, said tip adapted for engaging the cassette (330); and a first actuator (560) coupled to a second end of each of said gripper arms for pivoting the gripper arms (530).
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
38 words
An automated cassette handler as in claim 8, characterized in that the first actuator comprises: a first air cylinder (560) having a first throw rod (563); and a first spring (565) to retract the first throw rod (563).
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
18 words
An automated cassette handler as in claim 8 or 9, characterized in that the tip (520) is removable.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
70 words
An automated cassette handler as in one of claims 8 to 10, characterized in that the first sensor means comprises: a gripper microswitch (570) coupled to at least one of the gripper arms (530) for signaling the position of the tips (520) relative to the cassette (330); and a guide microswitch (610) coupled to the gripper housing (405) for signaling whether a cassette (330) is present within the gripper means.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
66 words
An automated cassette handler as in one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the depressor means comprises: a pivotally mounted depressor arm; a depressor bar (410) coupled to a first end of a depressor arm (420) for pressing against the wafers (20) within the cassette; and a second actuator (440) coupled to a second end of the depressor arm (420) for pivoting the depressor arm.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
36 words
An automated cassette handler as in claim 12, characterized in that the second actuator comprises: a second air cylinder (440) having a second throw rod (445); and a second spring to retract the second throw rod.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
42 words
An automated cassette handler as in claim 12 or 13, characterized in that the second sensor means comprises two swing microswitches (460) coupled to the gripper housing (405) fro signaling the position of the depressor bar (410) relative to the cassette (330).
Claim 16
Independent Claim
194 words
A method for automatically transporting integrated circuit wafers (20) held in a wafer cassette (330) within a canopy (40), said canopy coupled to a piece of integrated circuit processing equipment, characterized by the steps of: (a) placing the cassette (330) on an interface port handler (50) of an interface port (25) of the canopy (40); (b) actuating a switch (S) coupled to a controller (C); (c) lowering the cassette (330) on the interface port handler (50) into the canopy (40); (d) positioning a cassette handler (300) into conjunction with the cassette (330); (e) gripping the cassette (330) with a gripper (310) coupled to the cassette handler (300); (f) swinging a wafer depressor (320) coupled to the cassette handler (300) to push and retain wafers (20) within the cassette (330); (g) swinging the cassette handler (300) to transport the cassette (330) from the interface port handler (50) to a processing equipment cassette handler (60); (h) swinging the wafer depressor (320) to release the wafers (20) within the cassette (330); and (i) ungripping the cassette (330), characterized in that the steps (c) through (i) are performed under the control of a controller (C) without operator intervention.
Claim 17
Independent Claim
194 words
A method for automatically transporting integrated circuit wafers (20) held in a wafer cassette (330) within a canopy (40), said canopy coupled to a piece of integrated circuit processing equipment, characterized by the steps of: (a) placing the cassette (330) on an interface port handler (50) of an interface port (25) of the canopy (40); (b) actuating a switch (S) coupled to a controller (C); (c) lowering the cassette (330) on the interface port handler (50) into the canopy (40); (d) positioning a cassette handler (300) into conjunction with the cassette (330); (e) gripping the cassette (330) with a gripper (310) coupled to the cassette handler (300); (f) swinging a wafer depressor (320) coupled to the cassette handler (300) to push and retain wafers (20) within the cassette (330); (g) swinging the cassette handler (300) to transport the cassette (330) from the interface port handler (50) to a processing equipment cassette handler (60); (h) swinging the wafer depressor (320) to release the wafers (20) within the cassette (330); and (i) ungripping the cassette (330), characterized in that the steps (c) through (i) are performed under the control of a controller (C) without operator intervention.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
112 words
A method as in claim 15, characterized by the steps of: (j) sensing the presence of the cassette (330) in conjunction with the cassette handler (300) between steps (d) and (e); (k) sensing the gripping of the cassette (330) with the gripper (310) during step (e); (l) sensing the pushing of the wafers (20) into the cassette (330) during step (f); (m) sensing the transport of the cassette (330) to the processing equipment handler (60) between steps (g) and (h); (n) sensing the release of the wafers (20) in the cassette (330) by the wafer depressor (320) during step (h); and (o) sensing the ungripping of the cassette (330) after step (i).
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
128 words
The method as in claim 15 or 16, characterized by the additional steps of: (p) actuating the switch (S); (q) gripping the cassette (330); (r) swinging the wafer depressor (320) to push and retain the wafers (20) within the cassette (330); (s) swinging the cassette handler (300) to transport the cassette (330) from the processing equipment handler (60) to the interface port handler (50); (t) swinging the wafer depressor (320) to release the wafers (20) within the cassette; (u) ungripping the cassette (330); (v) swinging the cassette handler (300) away from the cassette (330); and (w) raising the cassette out of the canopy (40) on the interface port handler (50), wherein the steps (q) through (w) are performed under the control of the controller (C) without operator intervention.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
99 words
A method as in claim 17, characterized by the steps of: (x) sensing the gripping of the cassette (330) during step (q); (y) sensing the pushing of the wafers (20) into the cassette during step (r); (z) sensing the transport of the cassette to the interface port handler (50) between steps (s) and (t); (aa) sensing the release of the wafers (20) in the cassette by the wafer depressor during step (t); (bb) sensing the ungripping of the cassette during step (u); and (cc) sensing the swinging of the cassette handler (300) away from the cassette during step (v).
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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