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This is a record of a document published elsewhere, first published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, as US-2001046435-A1, on 29 November 2001. OpenTechnical did not first disclose it. The identifier, hashes and timestamps below record what this library served and when, not when the material became public. View the original.

OT-2026-000003082

Method and apparatus for separating wafers

Published
Permanent URL
Classification
Material Handling › Conveying Systems
Inventors
GIBBEL DAVID S
Assignee
AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGY INC
Original source
US-2001046435-A1, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, 29 November 2001
Document SHA-256
0ac6de065aadf76cd369f33769ff6e14e973c5f28a0201dc09484c502452a871

Wafers are separated individually from a stack by directing multiple jets of fluid between an outermost wafer in the stack and an adjacent wafer. The jets have sufficient pressure and are sufficiently spaced apart around the wafer stack to cause the outermost wafer to separate longitudinally from the adjacent wafer without lateral movement there between. In the illustrated embodiment, a chuck is attached to a planar surface of the outermost wafer. The attached wafer and wafer stack, once separated by the jet of fluid, are moved relatively apart, such as by movement of the chuck. The wafers in the stack are thereby separated without contact between a wafer edge and a solid object (such as a container wall or hand), minimizing the risk of wafer breakage.

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Abstract

Wafers are separated individually from a stack by directing multiple jets of fluid between an outermost wafer in the stack and an adjacent wafer. The jets have sufficient pressure and are sufficiently spaced apart around the wafer stack to cause the outermost wafer to separate longitudinally from the adjacent wafer without lateral movement there between. In the illustrated embodiment, a chuck is attached to a planar surface of the outermost wafer. The attached wafer and wafer stack, once separated by the jet of fluid, are moved relatively apart, such as by movement of the chuck. The wafers in the stack are thereby separated without contact between a wafer edge and a solid object (such as a container wall or hand), minimizing the risk of wafer breakage.

1. Drawings

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Publication information

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Citation

OpenTechnical Publication OT-2026-000003082, “Method and apparatus for separating wafers,” published September 15, 2026 at 19:25:01 UTC, https://opentechnical.org/p/OT-2026-000003082.

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