US Patent Issued to Applied Materials on July 29 for "Equipment front end modules with induced gas mixing, and methods of use thereof" (Texas Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,370,573, issued on July 29, was assigned to Applied Materials Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.).

"Equipment front end modules with induced gas mixing, and methods of use thereof" was invented by Paul Benjamin Reuter (Austin, Texas) and Steven Trey Tindel (Austin, Texas).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An equipment front end module (EFEM) having walls, a first wall including one or more load ports and an EFEM chamber formed between the walls. The EFEM further includes an upper plenum at a top of the EFEM and including an opening into the EFEM chamber. Ducts provide a return gas flow path enabling recirculation of gas from the EFEM chamber to the u...