Remote Prealigner

The Remote Prealigner (RPA) is an intelligent robot add-on, providing accurate and non-contact measurement of the eccentricity and the orientation of substrate placement. It is designed to be seamlessly integrated with Gencobot series 4, 7, 8, and GPR-SM robots, when substrate alignment is required by the material handling application.

The device can be arbitrarily placed inside the robot’s working envelope. It can be configured with several vertical travel ranges or without any vertical motion at all. The substrate can be placed on a chuck or on optional prealigner resting pins, depending on the shape of the robot’s end effector.

The operation of the prealigner includes a measurement of the wafer displacement, calculation of the necessary compensation, and orientation of the notch (or flat) to the desired angle. After the orientation is completed, the robot picks up the wafer with the necessary offset compensation. In order to maximize system throughput, the controller allows simultaneous operation of the prealigner and the robot – while the wafer is being measured, the robot can perform other tasks.

The RPA is designed for use in a wide range of applications regardless of the size, shape, transparency and thickness of the substrates to be aligned. The custom designed lighthouse provides accurate and reliable measurement of both solid and transparent objects. The built-in optics allow for substrate thickness as much as 6mm. The prealigner can measure wafers with diameters ranging from 50 to 300mm and square substrates from 75 to 200mm. An optional moving lighthouse provides software-controlled adjustment to the different substrate sizes.