Automatic wafer lapping apparatus

Claim 1

An automatic wafer lapping apparatus comprising: a lapping assembly consisting of an upper lapping plate, a lower lapping plate and wafer carriers, a loader assembly provided adjacent to said lapping assembly, an unloader assembly provided adjacent to said lapping assembly, and a robot having wafer holder means for holding a plurality of wafers and for transferring the wafers between the loader assembly and the unloader assembly and the lapping assembly, said lapping assembly further includes a position sensor means for detecting the position of the carriers and a means for cleaning the wafer holder means, said robot consists of a single arm member with the wafer holder means being supported at a free end of said single arm member of the robot, said wafer holder means including means to selectively and individually hold a plurality of wafers wherein said wafer holder means comprises: a rotary disk plate capable of rotating and having a plurality of wafer chucks arranged along a circumference of the disk plate equiangularly about the center thereof; a sensor provided in said rotary disk plate adjacent to said wafer chucks for detecting an angular phase of one of said carriers; and a pair of sensors provided in said rotary disk plate adjacent to said wafer chucks for detecting the center of said one carrier.