Owens Design, providing equipment design and manufacturing services to the semiconductor equipment industries, has introduced a Wafer Flip Module to its family of custom wafer handling systems
New manufacturing processes and the increasing need for backside contamination inspection require wafers to be loaded to the process or inspection chamber in a 90 or 180 degree flipped orientation.
The Wafer Flip Module is designed for 300mm and 200mm wafers and is compatible with both edge grip and vacuum paddle end effectors.
It has been selected by a leading supplier of standard EFEMs (Equipment Front End Module) for incorporation into their product line.
The Wafer Flip Module has two motors, one for flipping and one for the wafer gripper mechanism.
A 180-degree rotation of the wafer can be performed in less than two seconds.
The Flipper is designed so that no particles (0.10 micron or greater) are detected in the wafer path during airborne dynamic motion tests.
All motors and motion mechanisms are contained in a purged enclosure to eliminate any particle generation during the wafer flipping process.
The system is designed with all Semi and CE compliance and mounts to pre-existing M6 holes in standard Efems.
Mark Danna, senior director of Owens Design stated: "Our customer challenged us to come up with a cost effective and high reliability design while solving demanding speed and particle generation tests.
"Our history of solving problems in custom wafer handling allowed us to come up with a very clever answer".
Since 1982 Owens Design has been an innovative and reliable design and manufacturing partner for equipment companies in the semiconductor, data storage, biotech and related industries.
As a turnkey source for design and manufacturing of complex capital equipment, Owens Design has served customers such as Ultratech, Thermawave, KLA-Tencor, Asyst Technologies, Lam Research, Teradyne, Credence, Mattson, and Novellus.
