US Patent Issued to Lam Research on April 8 for "Reduced footprint wafer handling platform" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,272,583, issued on April 8, was assigned to Lam Research Corp. (Fremont, Calif.).

"Reduced footprint wafer handling platform" was invented by Christopher W. Burkhart (Los Gatos, Calif.), Richard H. Gould (Fremont, Calif.), Candi Kristoffersen (San Jose, Calif.), Michael Nordin (San Jose, Calif.), Richard M. Blank (San Jose, Calif.) and Hironobu Yasuumi (San Jose, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system comprises an equipment front end module (EFEM), a vacuum transfer module (VTM), a plurality off quad station process modules (QSMs). The EFEM is configured to receive a plurality of wafers. The EFEM comprises an EFEM transfer robot....