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John West, VLSI Research Europe, UK

ABSTRACT

The handling of substrates within process tools is not as simple as it first appearThe fact that it looks as easy is it does is evidence of the success that robotic subsystems suppliers have had in overcoming many of the technological challenges the industry currently faces. In particular, the move to larger substrates and smaller feature sizes has resulted in the development of robots that are more powerful, more reliable, and less likely to generate particles. What is remarkable about these achievements is that much of the progress was made in a very turbulent period during which the market almost doubled in size in 2000, then collapsed back to below the 1999 level in just three years.