Substrate transport apparatus

1. A substrate transport apparatus comprising:

a frame;

a drive section connected to the frame, the drive section including a shoulder drive section disposed in the frame and an articulated joint drive section; and

an articulated arm having a configuration that has a common shoulder joint and a predetermined number of articulating joints, the articulated arm being connected to the drive section for articulation of at least one of the predetermined number of articulating joints so that the articulating joints are moved independently by the drive section and effect transport motion with the articulated arm along a transport plane;

wherein the frame includes a substantially rigid spine member with a deterministic mounting system found dorsally off the substantially rigid spine member effecting repeatable positioning and alignment of the substantially rigid spine member and the transport plane with respect to a predetermined datum dispositive of a substrate processing station when mounting the substrate transport apparatus to a process tool.

2. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the deterministic mounting system includes at least one kinematic coupling that effects an alignment of the transport plane.

3. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the at least one kinematic coupling has a predetermined spatial relationship with at least a rotational axis of the shoulder drive section.

4. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the at least one kinematic coupling is positioned in a predetermined relationship to drive axes of the drive section so that the substrate transport apparatus is replaceable with another substrate transport apparatus while maintaining a fixed orientation of the transport plane.

5. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the substantially rigid spine member is of unitary construction.

6. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the articulated arm comprises a number of rigid arm links movably joined together to define the articulating joints.

7. The substrate transport apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the articulated arm is a scara arm having two end effectors.

8. The substrate transport apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the deterministic mounting system depends from the substantially rigid spine member.

9. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the substrate transport apparatus is mounted to a process tool by suspending the substrate transport apparatus from the process tool with the deterministic mounting system of the substantially rigid spine member.

10. A substrate transport apparatus comprising:

a frame;

a drive section connected to the frame, the drive section including a shoulder drive section disposed in the frame and an articulated joint drive section; and

an articulated arm having a configuration that has a common shoulder joint and a predetermined number of articulating joints, the articulated arm being connected to the drive section for articulation of at least one of the articulating joints, where the articulated joint drive section is disposed in the articulated arm;

wherein the articulated joint drive section has a motor module unit with at least one motor providing a number of independent drive axes, at least part of the motor module unit being located in an arm link of the articulated arm, where the motor module unit includes a common mounting flange positioned to engage a mounting surface within the articulated arm, where the common mounting flange is common to each of the at least one motor of the articulated joint drive section.

11. The substrate transport apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the arm link of the articulated arm includes an aperture effecting a removal or installation of the articulated joint drive section within the articulated arm.

12. A substrate transport chamber for a processing tool, the substrate transport chamber comprising:

a controlled atmosphere;

at least one port configured to control the controlled atmosphere and defining a transport plane; and

a substrate transport apparatus including

a frame,

a drive section connected to the frame, the drive section including a shoulder drive section disposed in the frame and an articulated joint drive section, and

an articulated arm having a configuration that has a common shoulder joint and a predetermined number of articulating joints, the articulated arm being connected to the drive section for articulation of at least one of the articulating joints so that the articulating joints are moved independently by the drive section and effect transport motion with the articulated arm along an arm transport plane,

wherein the frame includes a substantially rigid spine member with a deterministic mounting system found dorsally off of the substantially rigid spine member effecting repeatable positioning and alignment of the substantially rigid spine member and the arm transport plane with respect to a predetermined datum dispositive of a substrate processing station when mounting the substrate transport apparatus to the processing tool so that the arm transport plane is repeatably positioned and substantially aligned with the transport plane defined by the at least one port.

13. The substrate transport chamber of claim 12 , wherein the substantially rigid spine member is of unitary construction.

14. The substrate transport chamber of claim 12 , wherein the articulated arm comprises a number of rigid arm links movably joined together to define the articulating joints.

15. The substrate transport chamber of claim 12 , wherein the articulated arm is a scara arm having two end effectors.

16. The substrate transport chamber of claim 15 , wherein the scara arm has a selectable configuration that is selectable between the arm having one of the two end effectors not being independently rotatable and the arm having both of the end effectors being independently rotatable.

17. The substrate transport chamber of claim 12 , wherein the deterministic mounting system depends from the substantially rigid spine member.

18. A method of swapping a substrate transport apparatus, the method comprising:

providing a substrate transport apparatus frame including a substantially rigid spine member with a deterministic mounting system found dorsally of the substantially rigid spine member;

providing the substrate transport apparatus with a drive section connected to the substrate transport apparatus frame, the drive section including a shoulder drive section disposed in the substrate transport apparatus frame and an articulated joint drive section;

providing the substrate transport apparatus with an articulated arm having a configuration that has a common shoulder joint and a predetermined number of articulating joints, the articulated arm being connected to the drive section for articulation of at least one of the articulating joints so that the articulating joints are moved independently by the drive section and the articulated arm effecting transport motion along a transport plane; and

arranging the deterministic mounting system with respect to a predetermined datum dispositive of a substrate processing station so as to effect repeatable positioning and alignment of the substantially rigid spine member and the transport plane when mounting the substrate transport apparatus to a process tool.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising effecting alignment of the transport plane with at least one kinematic coupling of the deterministic mounting system.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the at least one kinematic coupling has a predetermined spatial relationship with at least a rotational axis of the shoulder drive section.

21. The method of claim 19 , further comprising positioning the at least one kinematic coupling in a predetermined relationship to drive axes of the drive section so that the substrate transport apparatus is replaceable with another substrate transport apparatus while maintaining a fixed orientation of the transport plane.

22. The method of claim 18 , wherein the deterministic mounting system depends from the substantially rigid spine member.

23. The method of claim 18 , wherein the articulated arm is calibrated to the predetermined datum.