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)

2 Andtooutp erformandeliminatethemoreexp ensive,spaceconsumingandlessreliable Rob otonaTtractApproach .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

3 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.)Thisrequirementb e-comesevenstrongerifthereisanuncertaint yintheequipmentplacementoriftherob ot-armde ectsduetotheweightofthemanipulatedob ,therob otmustb eabletop erformsmall Roll and Pitch motionsinadditiontothe Yaw motion.

4 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.

5 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.

6 GPRSwapMaster technologyisprotectedbyUSPatent06297611 MotionPlanningandControlThep erformanceofthesubstratehandlingrob otsisexceedinglydep ,co ordination,transformationandexecutionino rdertoguaranteee 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.

7 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%).

8 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.

9 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 .

10 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.