ON THE FLY AUTOMATIC WAFER CENTERING METHOD AND APPARATUS

摘要

Substrate processing apparatus including a wafer transport apparatus with a transport arm including an end effector, an arm pose deterministic feature integral to the substrate transport apparatus and disposed so that a static detection sensor of the substrate processing apparatus detects at least one edge of the at least one arm pose deterministic feature on the fly with radial motion of the transport arm, and a controller configured so that detection of the edge effects a determination of a proportion factor identifying at least a thermal expansion variance of the transport arm on the fly and includes a kinematic effects resolver configured to determine, from the detection of the edge on the fly, a discrete relation between the determined proportion factor and each different discrete variance respective to each different link of the transport arm determining at least the thermal expansion variance of the transport arm on the fly.

主权项

1. A substrate processing apparatus comprising:
a substrate transport apparatus with a transport arm including an end effector having a reference feature with a predetermined center, the end effector being configured to hold a wafer and transport the wafer within the substrate processing apparatus based on the predetermined center; at least one arm pose deterministic feature integral to the substrate transport apparatus and disposed so that a static detection sensor of the substrate processing apparatus detects at least one edge of the at least one arm pose deterministic feature on the fly with a radial motion of the transport arm; and a controller communicably coupled to the substrate transport apparatus, the controller being configured so that detection of the at least one edge effects a determination of a proportion factor identifying a variance of the transport arm on the fly with the radial motion of the transport arm; wherein the controller includes a kinematic effects resolver configured to determine, from the detection of the at least one edge, by the static detection sensor, on the fly with the radial motion of the transport arm, a discrete relation between the determined proportion factor and each different discrete variance respective to each different link of the transport arm determining the variance of the transport arm on the fly with the radial motion of the transport arm.