Patent ID: 6976400

Claim:
A method of damping vibrations in a wafer handling arm for handling a semiconductor wafer, the wafer handling arm defining a plane and the method comprising the steps of: constructing a cantilever beam spring of a contaminant-free material suitable for use in a low-contaminant semiconductor wafer processing environment; constructing a mass of a contaminant-free material suitable for use in a low-contaminant semiconductor wafer processing environment; positioning the mass on the cantilever beam spring to form a mass spring system having a desired vibration frequency in an out of plane direction, the vibration frequency of the mass spring system corresponding to an out of plane bending mode vibration frequency of the wafer handling arm to be damped; and attaching the mass spring system to the wafer handling arm at a high response point for the out of plane bending mode of the wafer handling arm to be damped to provide contaminant-free damping by the transfer of kinetic energy from the wafer handling arm to the mass spring system and prevent contaminant-producing impacts between the wafer handling arm and the wafer.