| 摘要 |
An improved mechanism for contacting and moving semiconductor wafers is provided. Specifically, a mechanism having a wafer contacting surface, such as a plurality of wafer lift pins, is driven from a first location (e.g., a wafer platform location) to a wafer contact location (e.g., where the wafer is initially contacted by the wafer lift pins, or where the wafer lift pins bring the wafer in contact with a wafer platform or wafer handler, etc.) via a Geneva drive mechanism having a plurality of stationary zones, a plurality of movement zones, and a plurality of transition points between the stationary zones and movement zones. The Geneva drive mechanism is configured such that as the wafer lift pins reach the wafer contact location the Geneva drive enters a stationary zone. Thus the wafer is contacted with virtually zero velocity. |
