Samsung patents robot sensors for precise wafer handling in chip factories

1. A position determination apparatus for a robot detection laser sensor system in front-opening unified pods (FOUPs), comprising: an external server; and a wafer processing device for performing processing for wafers and transmitting integration management data to the external server, wherein the wafer processing device comprises: the FOUPs configured to accommodate the wafers therein; loadports to which the FOUPs are detachably coupled; processing chambers in which the processing for the wafers are performed; an equipment front end module (EFEM) disposed between the processing chambers and the loadports and having an end-effector adapted to get the wafers out of the FOUPs into the processing chambers or put the wafers finished in processing in the processing chambers into the FOUPs; and a controller configured to transmit, if the FOUPs are seated onto the loadports, the transfer path data of the end-effector to the external server when the end-effector moves forward or backward toward and from the FOUPs, wherein each FOUP comprises: a housing having an entrance toward and from which the end-effector is configured to move forward and backward; wafer mounting rails disposed spaced apart from one another by a given distance on both side inner walls of the housing in a height direction thereof to mount the wafers sequentially thereonto; T-axis sensors disposed on top and bottom of the entrance to sense a horizontal transfer path of the end-effector; a Z-axis sensor disposed on an inner bottom surface of the entrance to sense a vertical transfer height of the end-effector; a loadport mounting plate disposed on an underside of the housing and electrically coupled to the corresponding loadport; a sensor support plate mounted on lowermost wafer mounting rails and having a plurality of height sensors disposed on top thereof to sense a height of the corresponding FOUP from the corresponding loadport; a horizontal sensor disposed on a surface of the sensor support plate to sense whether the housing is located horizontally on level; and a radio communication part disposed inside the housing to transmit sensed values of the T-axis sensors and the Z-axis sensor, angle values sensed by the horizontal sensor, and height values sensed by the plurality of height sensors to the controller.