Pneumatic wafer gripping technology that uses a
vacuum level of 3~5% compared to 80% for
suction pad system provides fast, reliable handling
of photovoltaic wafers and cells.

The main technology is the large effective vacuum
area and several hundred vacuum openings in the
bottom of the gripper which are all exposed to the
low vacuum.

Since force is pressure differential multiple by the
total area, the design achieves even higher hold-
ing forces than other technologies which operate
at much higher vacuum levels. Using a large
contact area instead of higher pressure levels to
grab wafers, the system also offers extremely fast
handling capabilities for one wafer per second
applications.

The low vacuum is achieved by using a series of
tubes in the bottom of the gripper where, once
around the circumference the circular opening
uses a high-velocity, press ured air stream to suck
the air from the vacuum chamber.