The trend of robot technology in semi-conductor and LCD industry

Today, most of the high technology products around us require high performance semiconductors, and information technology (IT) is fully utilized in these products. The IT revolution is due largely to the remarkable progress of semi-conductor technology. Robots are expected to handle larger size wafers under various levels of vacuum and clean environments, in order to permit semi-conductor manufacturing equipment to realize higher density and performance in the twenty-first century. Twenty years have passed since liquid crystal Displays (LCD) were introduced into the market and now LCDs are used widely. LCDs, which are based on thin film transistors (TFT) have been used especially in displays for PCs, mobile telephones and digital cameras, and now recently in flat-screen TVs. Under these circumstances, LCD device makers are enlarging the size of glass plates in order to achieve higher productivity. Along with these trends, the robots used in LCD manufacturing systems are required to cope with the market needs for enlarging the size of glass plates. This paper introduces the trend in the next generation of robot technology for the semiconductor and LCD industries, coping with larger wafers, higher density and larger LCD glass plates.