Genmark Automation, Inc. - Technology Highlights

1 GenmarkAutomation, ,2011 GenmarkAutomationhasb eenaleadingdesignerandmanufacturerofhigh -p erformancematerialhandlingandintegrateds ystems,byintro ducingandim-plementingcuttingedgetechnol ogiesinrob ene tsareprovidedb elowYaw-AxisThe Yaw-axis approachtothedesignofwaferhandlingrob otscameinre-sp onsetotherequirementfororthogonalarrange mentofthewafercarriersandpro rst Yaw-Axis waferhandlingrob otwasdevelop edbyGenmark,patentedandintro ducedbytheadditionalservocontrolledaxisa llowedtheto olbuildersnotonlytoarrangetheirequipment inanorthogonalmanner,buttooptimizethep erformanceofthematerialhandlerbyplanning awidevarietyofsmo othtra , exibilityinarrangingwaferpro cessingandmetrologyequipment,obstacleavo idance,andasaresult-enhancingtheoverallp erformanceandreducingthecostofthewaferpr o cessingto ductionofthe Yaw-Axis technologymadeitp ossi-bletop erformthematerialhandlingwithrob otswithstationarybase(b o dy)andtooutp erformandeliminatethemoreexp ensive,spaceconsumingandlessreliable Rob otonaTtractApproach.

2 TheIPofthe Yaw-Axis technologywasprotectedbythefollowingGenm arkAutomationPatents:US06121743,US062976 11,US05789890,US06037733 Dual-YawThe Dual-Yaw technologyisanextensionofthe Yaw-axis technologyin-tendedtoprovideafastwafersw apwithsinglearmrob endentlycontrolled Yaw axesandasso ciatedend-e ectorsmakeitp ossibletodesignsmo othmotionpathscomprisingstraight-lineseg mentsforaccessing1orthogonallyarrangedeq uipmentbythetwoend-e Dual-Yaw ap-proachisacost-e ectivealternativeofthe Dual-ArmRob otonaHorizontalTrack approachandisesp eciallyapplicabletoscenarioswithstronger con-straintsimp osedontheop erationalareaofthematerialhandler(noteno ughspaceforahorizontaltrack,notenoughswi ngingenvelop eattheend-stations,etc).GenmarkAutomatio ninventedandintro ducedtothemarketthe rst Dual-Yaw rob ciatedwiththistechnologywaspro-tectedbyt hefollowingpatents:US06121743,US05789890 ,US06037733 GPRI nmanywafer-handlingapplications,therob otisrequiredtoverticallymovethewaferorto tiltitduringmotionswithmechanicalconstra intsimp osedbytheequipment(wafercarriers,pro cessmo dules,etc.)

3 Thisrequirementb e-comesevenstrongerifthereisanuncertaint yintheequipmentplacementoriftherob ot-armde ectsduetotheweightofthemanipulatedob ,therob otmustb eabletop erformsmall Roll and Pitch motionsinadditiontothe Yaw motion. Roll and Pitch motionsintherangeof jorityoftheequipmentplacementdeviationsa ndarm-de ,tocom-binethewidemotionrangeandthedexte rityoftheserialmanipulatorswiththeprecis enessoftheparallelmanipulatorinsmallmoti onrange,GenmarkAu-tomation, ducedahybrid Parallel-Serial manipulatorcalledthe GlobalPositioningRob ot ,or GPR .TheGPRinheritinghigheraccuracy,increase dsti ness,mo dularityandsimplerinversekinematicsfromt he ParallelManipulators meetstherequirementsforpreciseandfastwaf erhandlinginthefaceofenvironmentaluncert aintiesandarmde ciatedwiththeGPRT echnology:US05954840,US06085670, otsforFastWaferSwapThefastwaferswapiscon sideredtob eoneofthemostimp ortantfactorsforincreasingthep erformanceofthewaferpro endentlydrivenarmreadytoplaceanunpro cessedwaferintothepro cesschamb erasso onasthe rstarmtakesthepro cessedwaferfromthechamb cesschamb ots,thedualarmrob otscanalsob otfromtheGPRseries,withlessmovingmassesa ndb etterdy-namicp erformance,wasintro ducedin1999asanalternativetothedual-armr ob otnamedthe GPR-SwapMaster inheritsthe2stabilityoftheGPRandthedexte rityoftheanthrop omorphicrob otcombinesthefunctionalityofathree-links erialarm,whichp erformsfastlinearmotion,withthemotionoft wolightweightarmsforfastwaferswappingatt hepro cesschamb ers,sourcecassettes/FOUPs,prealigners, otcontributetoitsmo dulardesign,simpli edcontrol,teaching, GPRSwapMaster technologyisprotectedbyUSPatent06297611 MotionPlanningandControlThep erformanceofthesubstratehandlingrob otsisexceedinglydep ,co ordination.

4 Transformationandexecutioninordertoguara nteee ectivematerialtransferwithintheconstrain tsofthepro cessingto : Smo othmotionpro legenerationviaBernstain-BezierCurves(BB )-Intro ducedin1995themotionpro legeneratorsbasedonBB-Curvesguaranteesmo othnessatp osition,velo city, (S)providedbytheBB-Curvesmakesthequality ofthemotionplanninginsensitivetothereal- timejitter,latencyandvariationsinthesyst emtime-sliceduetoincreasedcomputationalb urden. Generationofcomplexsmo othmotionpathsbasedonBezierCurves-Vastva rietyofmotionpaths,basedonBeziercurvespr ovidedtotheuserinordertooptimally tthemotionpathstotheto ol-geometry. Motionoverlappingforenhancedp erformance-typicallythemo-tionpathofther ob otconsistsofsegmentswithzerovelo citiesandaccel-erationsoftherob otaxesatthesegmentend-p ottocompletelystopattheendofeachsegmenti snotalwaysnecessaryandsegmentoverlapping istypicallyallowedbythegeometryoftheto erp ositionofthemovesalongadjacentsegments,w hichitturnleadstoasigni canttime-saving(intherangeof30%).

5 UninterruptedTra jectoryMotion(BlendingPUTandGETcom-mands )-Whenthesequenceofmotionsisknowninadvan cebasedonde-terministicpro cessrecip esonecanoverlapsuccessive GET and PUT commandsandtominimizethemotionstopsneces sarytosynchronizewithpro cessingequipment. SingularityConsistentMotionPlanning-this approachisapplica-blewhenthecon gurationoftherob otarmgetsinaclosevicinityofasingularcon cities/accelerationsofthemo-tors,whichma yexceedtheirop ,theplannedvelo citiesandaccelerationsget intelli-gentlyscaled basedonthe distancetothesingularity . Collisionpreventionsoftware-basedonelab orategeometricalanaly-sisoftheconstraint simp osedontherob otmotion,thecollisionpreventionsoftwarem onitorstherob otmotionsforcompliancewiththeconstraints andpreventscollisionsduetoop erator mistakes duringtherob otteach-ingpro cess. OptimalPIDtuning-facilitatesthepro cessoftuningthePID lterparametersandguaranteeoptimalservo-l o opp erformanceincompliancewithconstraintsimp osedonthePID lterco e dofJeevesandHo oks,whichdo esnotrequireknowledgeab outtherob otmo del(normallynotavailablewiththerequiredd egreeofaccuracy)andderivesPID lterco e cientsthatminimizeuser-de nedp dguaranteesoptimalPIDtuninginthefaceofco mplexloading,motiongeometryandkinematics .

6 MotionOptimization-thisisanextensionofth eOptimalPIDT uningapproachbasedonHo okeandJeevesmetho d,tomoregeneralmotionoptimizationtaskssu chasdeterminingmotionparametersthatguara nteesmallestcycletime;optimalcalibration ofmeasurementequipment( );optimalsubstrate-aligning;automatictea ching,etc. Centralized,Multi-AxisMotionControllers- capableofcontrollingupto24 DCbrush/brushlessservoaxes True-Absolute,Multi-TurnEncolinearderInt erfaceSupp ort-theabsolutep ositionofthemotorsisp opclosedonabsolutemotorp ositionscontributestoincreasedreliabilit yoftherob oticsystem. DistributedControlArchitectureOption-all owstoplacesingleaxiscontrolno desnexttothemotors,allowingtosigni cantlysimplifythewiringoftherob ot. AdvancedKinematicsandDynamicControlSchem es-allowforkinematicsupp ortofawidevarietyofmechanismsandforimpro vingthemotiontrackingp erformancebyintro ducingmo delbaseddynamiccomp ensations4 On-the- y WaferCenteringandAutomaticMo-tionPathCor rectionInavarietyofwaferhandlingapplicat ions,thereisnoneedfororientingthewaferbu tonlytocenteritsoasthelastcanb esafelyinsertedintowafercarri-ersorpro (waferprealigner)

7 Butwafercenteringisfullywithinthecapabil itiesoftherob ot,providedinformationab outthewafercentermisplacementwithre-sp ecttotheend-e ectoroftherob otb ectivewayforacquiringthesub jectinformationistousethrough-b eamsandfastrob otp ositioncapturingbasedontheb ,fast,computationallye ectiveandrobustcomputa-tionalschemesforc alculatingthewafero setsduringthemotionoftherob on-the- y wafero setcomp ensationthroughpre-planningthemotionpath soastodeliverthewafercenteredatthe ectoftheon-the- ywafercenteringissigni eam-basedwafercenteringapproachisalsouse dforauto-calibrationoftherob ectionComp ensationThe De ectionComp ensation ispatentedGenmarktechnologyprimarilyat-t ributedtotheGPRrob dateforequipmentmisalignmentandde ectionofthearmduetotheloadofthemanipulat edob ject,thetaskformaintainingtheorientation oftheob jectduringtheconstraintmotionoftherob otb ecomesofsigni cantimp ,thestraight-line(X,Y)motionofthecentero ftheob jectissynchro-nizedwiththevertical(Z)mot ionoftherob otsoasthewaferremainsinoneandthesameplan e(coincidentwiththeplaneoftheresp ectiveslotofthewafercarrier/pro cessstation) ectioncomp en-sationtechnologyisverye ectiveinhigh-payloadapplications,suchasc arryingmultiplewaferplatens,b onding- xtures, at-panel-displays,solarpanels, De ectionComp ensation ,Teaching(EZTeach)andDiagnosticsThegoalo ftheauto-calibrationistoderivecalibratio nparametersoftherob otorasso ciatedequipmentwithoutorwithminimumparti cipationoftheop ose,dedicatedsensor-arrays,basedonthroug h-b eams,CCD,etc.

8 ,areusedtocorrelatereferencep ositionswithactualp ositionsoftherob otandtoidentifyresp ,theco ordinatesofstationsasso ciatedwithequipmentcanb eautomaticallyderivedifthephysicalp ositionofthesestationsisacquiredbytherob ordinatesarerepresentedintermsofrob otaxesp ositionsandthereforetheyarerob otdep otisusedasaninstrumsto ckersentformeasuringandcalculatingtheCar tesianco ordinatesofdedicatedb ordinatesareusedtocalculatethedisplaceme nt(p ositionandorientation)oftheequipmentco ordinateframewithresp ecttotheworldco otaxesp ositionstoobtainthepickupco ,Genmarkpro-videse ectivemeansfordiagnostics,monitoringandr ecordingoftherob ot-state,andto olsforfacilitatingtheop eratorinterfaceandinteractionwiththerob cesse ec-tiveandless-dep endentonthequali cationoftheservicingp eci cteachingwizards,streamlinetheteachingpr o cessandmakeituniformandlessdep endentonop erator' ,adedicated Black-Box deviceemb eddedintherob otmonitorsandrecordsthemostimp ortantstate-parametersoftherob ot,keepsrob otsp eci ccalibra-tiondata,registerscriticalexcep tionsthusfacilitatingtherob otdiagnostics,maintenanceandsupp ectrumofvacuumrob ots,cover-ingallp (upto30lbs)andextendedverticaltravel(upt o9 )widenstheapplicationscop eoftheserob otfromb otsprovidesfore ,withextendedverticaltravel(16 )andhighpayload(150lbs)provideexcellenti ndexing( resolution)

9 Erentvacuumrob otfamilies- SwapMasterVacuum and GPRV acuumSwapMaster guar-anteefastwaferswapinvacuum(<4sec).T he SwapMasterVacuum isoneoftheveryfewrob otsinthemarketemploying trueabsolutemulti-turn enco dsto ckerserinterface, ,Genmarkdesignsandman-ufacturesturn-keyc luster-to olsolutionscomprisingvariousgeometryands idesvacuumtransferchamb ers,load-lo cks,bu ers,vacuumprealigners, ,collisionavoidance,materialmonitoringan dautoteachingthroughdedicatedsensorarray slo catedonthevacuumtransferchamb ectivelycontrolthemotionofthesesystemsGe nmarkacknowledgesitsreadinesstofullysupp ortthe450mmwaferhandlingb 'sGB8 YProb otwasrecognizedastheb estp erformanceratioofitsmaterialhandlingrob otsGenmark,in2008,Genmarkintro duceditsGRexrob otseries,charac-terizedby Extremelysimplemechanicsandactuationandh ighlyreducedpartcount Lightweight-weightlessthanahalfcomparedt oequivalentcomp etitivepro ducts Highreliability,serviceabilityandmaintai nabilityTheIPofGRexisprotectedbyUS2008/0 121064A1 BatchHandlingThisisane ectiveapproachtoincreasingthep erformanceofthewaferhan-dlingsystemscarr yingsimultaneouslymultiplewaferswithcons tantorvariable(servo-controlled) eciallye ectiveforverticalfurnacesequipp edwithwafer-b ensivereal-estateintheFAB,Genmarkhasdeve lop edaseriesofextendedverticaltravelmateria lhandlingsystemsallow-ingforequipmentsta ckup,buildinghigh-p erformanceverticalfurnaces,FOUPsto ckers,substratesto ckersandsorters.