Stand-Alone Pre-Aligner

The Stand-Alone Pre-Aligner is an autonomous device, which provides accurate, non-contact measurement of the eccentricity and orientation of substrate placement. It can be integrated with numerous substrate-manipulating devices when high alignment accuracy is required in the face of wide range initial substrate – misplacement.

The substrate can be placed onto a chuck or onto optional resting pins of the pre-aligner, depending on the shape of the robot’s end effector. The chuck is equipped with two servo-axes, X and Y, which enable it to move undemeath the substrate (which at that time is resting on the pins) and compensate for any misalignments. The operations of the Stand-Alone Pre-Aligner include wafer displacement measurement, calculation of the necessary compensation, and orientation of the notch (or the flat) to the desired angle. The high-resolution and accuracy of the chuck-movement guarantees very precise alignment in wide range substrate displacement.

The Stand-Alone Pre-Aligner is designed for use in a wide range of applications regardless of the size, shape, transparency, and thickness of the substrates that are 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 pre-aligner can measure wafers with diameters ranging from 75 to 300mm and square substrates from 75 to 200mm. An optional moving lighthouse provides software-controlled adjustment to the different substrate sizes.

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