| Patent Number |
Title Of Patent |
Date Issued |
| 6305657 |
Mechanism for tilting a microscope |
October 23, 2001 |
| A mechanism for tilting a microscope in which a tilting base 5 is supported by a tilting sub-base 4 at three points, and is urged toward the tilting sub-base at all times by the resilient force of initially coned disc springs 23 fitted to support bolts 20. Adjusting bolts 30 are used for |
| 6302762 |
Wafer polishing apparatus |
October 16, 2001 |
| Sensors detect a stock removal of a wafer during polishing, and a CPU calculates the stock removal in accordance with information from the sensors. The CPU compares the actual stock removal detected by the sensors and a model stock removal stored in RAM, and determines timings for dr |
| 6296555 |
Wafer machining apparatus |
October 2, 2001 |
| According to the present invention, a floating mechanism of a load stage floats positioned wafers in concave parts, and then, the chucks hold the wafers by suction. Therefore, the chucks can easily hold the centered wafers. |
| 6283828 |
Wafer polishing apparatus |
September 4, 2001 |
| The present invention is a wafer polishing apparatus with a device that detects the polishing end according to a change in rotation resistance of a wafer during polishing. The wafer polishing apparatus comprises a head body and a carrier which are connected with each other by a connectin |
| 6280308 |
Wafer suction pad |
August 28, 2001 |
| A round groove is formed at the center of a wafer sucking face of a wafer suction pad. A plurality of annular grooves are formed on the wafer sucking face concentrically with the round groove. Each of the grooves is connected with an air intake line. Each of the air intake lines is c |
| 6273804 |
Apparatus for polishing wafers |
August 14, 2001 |
| An apparatus for polishing wafers wherein a retainer ring 40 is held by a carrier 32 of a wafer-holding head 20 by using an O-ring 31. Further, a protection sheet 80 for a wafer 2 is held by the retainer ring so as to cover the surface of an air-blow member 34 of the carrier. While the w |
| 6267648 |
Apparatus and method for chamfering wafer |
July 31, 2001 |
| A grindstone and a wafer are rotated at high speeds in the same direction. The rotating wafer is slowly moved toward the rotating grindstone to thereby gradually chamfer the periphery of the wafer. |
| 6257966 |
Wafer surface machining apparatus |
July 10, 2001 |
| A surface machining apparatus comprises a suction transfer device that is capable of transferring a ground thin wafer held thereon without damaging it. After the wafer is ground at two different grinding stages, the suction transfer device transfers the wafer from a chuck table to a |
| 6234869 |
Machine control gage system |
May 22, 2001 |
| The record of changes in the size of a workpiece, which is measured by a gage head during grinding, is graphed on a color LCD of a control part. It is therefore possible to know if there is an abrupt change or no change in the size of the workpiece during the grinding just by looking at |
| 6234160 |
Abnormality transmission system for wire saw |
May 22, 2001 |
| If something goes wrong with a wire saw, a personal computer outputs a dial signal to a modem, which dials a calling number of a pager carried by an operator through a telephone system. The sound of the pager notifies the operator of the abnormality of the wire saw even if he or she is n |
| 6229331 |
Apparatus for and method of inspecting patterns on semiconductor integrated devices |
May 8, 2001 |
| An apparatus correctly detects critical defects in spaces between wiring patterns on semiconductor integrated devices. The apparatus picks up gray level images from semiconductor dies, sequentially reads the images strip by strip, each strip consisting of pixels aligned in a row or colum |
| 6212481 |
Method and apparatus for automatic shape computing for contour shape determining machine |
April 3, 2001 |
| An automatically shape calculating method and apparatus for contour shape measuring machines, by which a geometric shape value and a geometric shape boundary value are calculated from shape data. A geometric shape boundary is provisionally set in accordance with the shape data, which is |
| 6204962 |
Confocal microscope |
March 20, 2001 |
| A confocal microscope is provided that can perform automatic focussing.A beam splitter (9) is additionally disposed along an optical path of light split from reflected light from the surface of an object of a confocal microscope, whereby when light is focussed on the surface of a light d |
| 6203414 |
Polishing apparatus |
March 20, 2001 |
| The polishing apparatus comprises a turn table, which polishes a semiconductor wafer, and a holding and pressing part, which holds and presses the semiconductor wafer against a polishing surface of the turn table. The holding and pressing part transmits a force from an air bag to the |
| 6196905 |
Wafer polishing apparatus with retainer ring |
March 6, 2001 |
| A rubber sheet is arranged between a head body and a retainer ring of a wafer holding head. Two O-rings air-tightly close a space between the periphery of the rubber sheet, which is located above the retainer ring, and the head body. When a pump supplies the compressed air to the space, |
| 6189943 |
Robot hand |
February 20, 2001 |
| In a robot hand of an automatic handling robot for holding and carrying a semiconductor wafer or the like, the robot hand 10 itself is made of a porous material, for example, porous ceramic, and the surface portion thereof other than portions corresponding to a wafer suction portion 13 |
| 6178961 |
Wire saw control method and wire saw |
January 30, 2001 |
| A sensor measures a displacement of a sensor, and a control part of a wire saw calculates a sliding load in accordance with the measured displacement and an initial tension of the wire. Then, the control part compares the calculated cutting load with a preset reference value, and control |
| 6145499 |
Wire saw |
November 14, 2000 |
| A cover for covering a processing chamber, in which a plurality of grooved rollers of a wire saw is arranged, is composed of an outside cover and an inner cover. The outside cover covers the plurality of grooved rollers, and the inner cover covers an ingot. This prevents slurry and cutti |
| 6145422 |
Method of positioning work piece and system therefor |
November 14, 2000 |
| A work piece such as a semiconductor ingot is positioned and bonded to a work piece bonding block by a bonding jig which is provided separately from a wire saw in such a manner that the central axis of the work piece and respective horizontal and vertical surfaces of the work piece bondi |
| 6142138 |
High speed method of aligning cutting lines of a workpiece using patterns |
November 7, 2000 |
| Two imaging equipment are provided at a pair of cutting blade units, and the two imaging equipment image patterns at first positions in proximity to the center of a wafer at the same time. A controller drives drive mechanisms to align the wafer in such a way that current image patterns a |
| 6139591 |
Wafer separating and cleaning apparatus and process |
October 31, 2000 |
| An individual wafer separating part separates batched wafers one by one from a slice base mounting beam, and then a shuttle conveyor transports the separated wafers one by one to an individual cleaning part so that the wafers can be cleaned individually. After the cleaning, a detecting p |
| 6135103 |
Wire saw for slicing brittle materials with an ingot loading and unloading mechanism |
October 24, 2000 |
| An opening for loading and unloading ingots is formed at the top of a cover, which covers a processing chamber wherein grooved rollers of a wire saw are disposed. The ingots are exchanged from above the cover through the opening. Even if a plurality of wire saws are arranged at short |
| 6135102 |
Wafer collecting apparatus |
October 24, 2000 |
| A running bonded abrasive wire cuts wafers one by one from a slice base, which hold the wafers. The cut wafers are transported on the first conveyor to a collecting part. During the transport process, a CCD camera images the shape of the wafer, and outputs the image data of the wafer to |
| 6128547 |
Machine control gage system |
October 3, 2000 |
| A machine control gage system which is able to immediately recognize the cause of abnormal machining of a workpiece. The machine control gage system determines a change in the outer diameter of the workpiece during grinding, and outputs a control signal to a grinding machine controller |
| 6119673 |
Wafer retrieval method in multiple slicing wire saw |
September 19, 2000 |
| Partitions are inserted between different kinds of wafers, which have been sliced from different kinds of ingots by a wire saw. The partitioned wafers are stored in a cassette, and are soaked in hot water with the cassette. The wafers are separated from slice base mounting beams. After |
| 6098452 |
Machine control gage system performing roughness and roundness measuring functions |
August 8, 2000 |
| The machine control gage system measures the size of a workpiece through a measuring head while a machining tool machines the workpiece. When the measured size of the workpiece reaches a preset size, the machine control gage system commands the machining tool to stop machining the workpi |
| 6092411 |
Roundness measuring instrument and measuring head calibration method therefor |
July 25, 2000 |
| There is provided a reference gage that has first and second reference planes parallel to one another and perpendicular to a rotational axis of the reference gage, and a distance between the reference planes is already known as a reference distance. To calibrate the measuring head, the |
| 6086453 |
Wafer Pattern imaging apparatus |
July 11, 2000 |
| Even if it is impossible to image a pattern surface of a wafer that is placed with its down on a wafer table with visible light, a wafer pattern imaging apparatus is able to image the pattern surface (the obverse) from the reverse of the wafer with light transmitted through the wafer. Th |
| 6080049 |
Wafer polishing apparatus |
June 27, 2000 |
| The first air guide groove is formed at the bottom of a carrier along the inner circumference of a circle whose radius corresponds to the maximum radius of a wafer. The air is supplied to the outer periphery of the wafer through the first air guide groove to form a pressure air layer bet |
| 6067976 |
Wafer cut method with wire saw apparatus and apparatus thereof |
May 30, 2000 |
| The moving direction of the wire line 15A at the cut portion 44 for cutting the columnar semiconductor ingot 18 corresponds to the vertical-downward direction. And, the semiconductor ingot 18 supported with the cut-feed means 20 is fed horizontally so as to be pushed in perpendicular to |
| 6066031 |
Wafer chamfering method and apparatus |
May 23, 2000 |
| A wafer to be chamfered is supported in such a manner as to rotate and to move in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction which are perpendicular to one another, and a periphery grinding wheel is rotatably placed on the Y-axis. To chamfer a circular part of the wafer, the circu |
| 6062953 |
Wafer positioning method and apparatus |
May 16, 2000 |
| The peripheral edge of a wafer is cramped by four cramp rollers which are able to move forward and backward with respect to a reference point, and thereby, the center of the wafer is positioned at the reference point. Then, a notch pin, which is provided on a reference line, is pressed |
| 6059636 |
Wafer polishing apparatus |
May 9, 2000 |
| Sensors detect a stock removal of a wafer during polishing, and a CPU calculates the stock removal in accordance with information from the sensors. The CPU compares the actual stock removal detected by the sensors and a model stock removal stored in RAM, and determines timings for dr |
| 6042459 |
Surface machining method and apparatus |
March 28, 2000 |
| A wafer is rotated on its axis, which is biased with regard to an axis of a grinding wheel, and revolves around an axis which is biased with regard to the axis of the wafer and the axis of the grinding wheel. In this state, the grinding wheel is abutted against the surface of the wafer. |
| 6033292 |
Wafer polishing apparatus with retainer ring |
March 7, 2000 |
| A rubber sheet is arranged between a head body and a retainer ring of a wafer holding head. Two O-rings air-tightly close a space between the periphery of the rubber sheet, which is located above the retainer ring, and the head body. When a pump supplies the compressed air to the space, |
| 6030326 |
Automatic blade changing system |
February 29, 2000 |
| An automatic blade changing system of a dicing machine uses a blade which is fixed to an auxiliary stopper member provided with a thread which is engaged with a thread of a spindle. The automatic blade changing system consists of two blade holding means which hold the blade to which the |
| 6030278 |
Surface machining method and apparatus |
February 29, 2000 |
| A wafer is rotated on its axis, which is biased with regard to an axis of a grinding wheel, and revolves around an axis which is biased with regard to the axis of the wafer and the axis of the grinding wheel. In this state, the grinding wheel is abutted against the surface of the wafer. |
| 6027398 |
Wafer polishing apparatus |
February 22, 2000 |
| A wafer is polished while it is pressed against a polishing cloth through a pressure air layer, and a polished surface adjustment ring as well as the wafer are pressed against the polishing cloth. The wafer is polished in the state wherein a collapsing position of the polished surface ad |
| 6014965 |
Apparatus for recognizing the shape of a semiconductor wafer |
January 18, 2000 |
| The present invention provides an apparatus for recognizing the shape of a semiconductor wafer, capable of stably achieving accurate shape recognition without being affected by either a circuit pattern formed on the semiconductor wafer or the color of an adhesive sheet attached to a |
| 5979730 |
Mounting beam removal equipment |
November 9, 1999 |
| A mounting beam removal equipment has a cassette for holding a plurality of stacked wafers in such a manner that mounting beams of the wafers are trued up in the same direction, a brush composed of a plurality of disks which are inclined at a predetermined angle and secured to a vertical |
| 5961378 |
Polishing apparatus |
October 5, 1999 |
| A polishing apparatus is provided with a turn table, on which an air passage is formed, and a polishing pad mount plate, on which a polishing pad is stuck. The polishing pad mount plate is detachably attached on the turn table. When the polishing pad mount plate is detached from the turn |
| 5948206 |
Apparatus for determining removed amount of wafer |
September 7, 1999 |
| The differential transformer is secured to the wafer holding table provided in the head, and the core of the differential transformer is secured to the rod member, which is provided to the head and freely projects and retracts from the face of the wafer. Then, the tip of the rod member i |
| 5931725 |
Wafer polishing machine |
August 3, 1999 |
| A semiconductor wafer is held by a wafer mount plate, which is loosely inserted into a housing. An air chamber is formed between the wafer mount plate and the housing. A retainer ring encloses the semiconductor wafer, and the semiconductor wafer as well as the retainer ring contacts with |
| 5917431 |
Display system for a traffic signal and a traffic signal |
June 29, 1999 |
| The TS panel can be easily observed with the traffic signal. Multiple pieces of information are changed over to be displayed on the TS panel, and a luminescent color of the information such as traffic condition reports, traffic slogans, advertisements, etc. or a luminescent color of |
| 5908025 |
Wire derailment detecting apparatus of wire saw |
June 1, 1999 |
| A microswitch is provided near each end of each grooved roller. The microswitch has a rod-shaped contact shoe, and is operated if a wire derailed from the grooved roller contacts the contact shoe. An operational signal is sent from the microswitch to a control apparatus, and the cont |
| 5904136 |
Wire saw and slicing method thereof |
May 18, 1999 |
| The crystal orientation of a workpiece is determined and a tilt angle of the workpiece is adjusted based on the determined crystal orientation at the outside of a wire saw, and then the workpiece is attached to a workpiece feed table of the wire saw so that the slicing can be started. |
| 5896851 |
Wire saw |
April 27, 1999 |
| A turn table is connected to a rotary shaft of a driving motor for driving a wire reel coaxially therewith. The wire reel is connected onto this turn table. With this arrangement, the wire reel is directly driven by the driving motor. Accordingly, the period of time needed for accelerati |
| 5893308 |
Method of positioning work piece and system therefor |
April 13, 1999 |
| A work piece such as a semiconductor ingot is positioned and bonded to a work piece bonding block by means of a bonding jig which is provided separately from a wire saw in such a manner that the central axis of the work piece and respective horizontal and vertical surfaces of the work |
| 5885051 |
Workpiece transfer equipment in dicing machine |
March 23, 1999 |
| A wafer is gripped by a chuck part provided at a front end of a slide arm, and the slide arm is moved in the first direction from a reference position, from which the workpiece is transferred to a workpiece cutting part, to a cleansing position, where the cut workpiece is cleansed, so |
| 5876272 |
Semiconductor wafer polishing machine |
March 2, 1999 |
| A wafer mount plate is inserted loosely into a housing, and the wafer mount plate is supported in such a manner as to be swingable and movable vertically and horizontally with respect to a polishing pad. An air chamber is formed between the wafer mount plate and the housing. By contr |
