Development and prototype of a textured nanoimprinted air bearing system

Silicon wafers and solar cells are delicate components used in the semiconductor industries and energy industries. Handling and transportation can easily damage these components. Conventional handling methods with mechanical contact can cause various damages to these delicate surfaces. Air bearings can provide a solution by enabling an almost...

Contactless positioning of thin flexible substrates: Demonstrator design and validation of opposed air film actuators

In the industry motion systems with electric motors are used for transporting and positioning thin flexible substrates at high throughput rates. A possible alternative actuation solution could be to apply contactless air film actuators which make use of air bearing principles. The air film actuators use a thin film of air to levitate and propel...

Actuator System for the Flowerbed

In the electronics industry there is a trend towards the handling of larger and thinner sheets of silicon, for the production of wafers and solar cells. The flowerbed is a contact-less handler for these fragile substrates based on air bearing technology. By levitating the substrate on a film of pressurized air, mechanical contact is avoided and...

Development of an Air-Based Contactless Transport Demonstrator

In many industries, for example the semi-conductor and solar cell industry, production processes have to handle thin substrates such as wafers or solar cells. For economic reasons, the thickness of these substrates shows a decreasing trend over the years. This results in an increasing breakage rate of the substrates during the production process...

Air-based contactless positioning of thin substrates: Exploring the outlet restriction variation concept

A new concept in the field of air-based contactless positioning has been explored. The concept is based on the variation of the outlet restriction of an actuator, which controls a net air flow starting from the inlet. The object to be positioned ‘floats’ on a thin air film with a thickness in the order of tens of micrometres. Since the film...