Apparatus and methods for vacuum chucking a substrate to a susceptor. The susceptor comprises one or more angularly spaced pockets are positioned around a center axis of the susceptor, the one or more angularly spaced pockets having an inner pocket and an outer pocket. The susceptor can be configured as an intermediate chuck having one or more pucks positioned within the inner pocket or as a distributed chuck having one or more pucks positioned within the outer pocket. The one or more pucks has a center hole, at least one radial channel and at least one circular channel having chuck holes for vacuum chucking a substrate.

An optical axis adjusting method includes a position detecting step of emitting a laser beam from a laser oscillator, applying the laser beam to a processing point, and detecting the position of the laser beam by using a position detecting unit set at the processing point, a storing step of storing the position of the laser beam as detected in the position detecting step as a reference position, and an adjusting step of operating an adjusting mechanism of each optical component holder in the case that the position of the laser beam is deviated from the reference position after performing maintenance of each optical component, thereby adjusting the position of the laser beam so that the position of the laser beam is shifted back to the reference position.

Susceptor assemblies comprising a susceptor base and a plurality of pie-shaped skins thereon are described. A pie anchor can be positioned in the center of the susceptor base to hold the pie-shaped skins in place during processing.

Chucks for supporting semiconductor wafers during certain processing operations are disclosed. The chucks may include a recessed region near the outer perimeter of the wafer that has one or more surfaces that face towards the wafer but are recessed therefrom so as to not contact the wafer around the perimeter of the wafer. The use of such a recessed region prevents direct thermally conductive contact between the chuck and the wafer, thereby allowing the wafer to achieve a more uniform temperature distribution in certain process conditions. This has the further effect of causing certain processing operations to be more uniform with respect to edge-center deposition (or etch) layer thickness.

A substrate dividing method includes preparing a substrate that is formed with division start points along streets and that has a protective sheet attached to a surface on one side thereof and rolling a roller on a surface on the other side of the substrate, to attach an expanding tape. Next, suction by a holding table is cancelled, and, in a state in which a slight gap is formed between a holding surface of the holding table and the protective sheet, the roller is brought into contact with the expanding tape and rolled, thereby extending cracks extending from the division start points while causing the substrate to sink into the gap through the protective sheet with the division start points as starting points, and the expanding tape is expanded to widen the chip intervals with the division start points as starting points.

A substrate bonding apparatus includes a first bonding chuck configured to support a first substrate and a second bonding chuck configured to support a second substrate such that the second substrate faces the first substrate. The first bonding chuck includes a first base, a first deformable plate on the first base and configured to support the first substrate and configured to be deformed such that a distance between the first base and the first deformable plate is varied, and a first piezoelectric sheet on the first deformable plate and configured to be deformed in response to power applied thereto to deform the first deformable plate.

Techniques are described for holding a wafer or wafer sub-stack to facilitate further processing of the wafer of sub-stack. In some implementations, a wafer or wafer sub-stack is held by a vacuum chuck in a manner that can help reduce bending of the wafer or wafer sub-stack.

A minimal contact end-effector is described that may be used for handling microelectronic and similar types of devices. In one example the end-effector has a vacuum pad to generate a lifting force and a standoff fastened to the vacuum pad. The standoff has a plurality of legs with chamfered edges to contact the edges of a microelectronic device to hold the device against the lifting force.

A transport system for transporting a plurality of objects between a storage container configured to store the plurality of objects and a processing apparatus configured to collectively process the plurality of objects held on a tray, including a mounting part on which the storage container is mounted, a stage on which the plurality of objects are mounted, a tray support part configured to support the tray, a first transport device configured to transport the plurality of objects between the storage container mounted on the mounting part and the stage, and a second transport device configured to transport the plurality of objects between the stage and the tray supported by the tray support part.

A substrate transport apparatus includes transport hands that clamp substrates by vacuum pressures, respectively, and that are located at different heights, a vacuum pressure supply unit that supplies the vacuum pressures to the transport hands, and a controller that controls the vacuum pressure supply unit to supply the vacuum pressures to the transport hands or interrupt the supply of the vacuum pressures to the transport hands. The controller controls the vacuum pressure supply unit such that the vacuum pressures of the transport hands are turned off at the same height from a substrate support member.