Patent ID: 7230702

Claim:
A method of determining an alignment offset between a substrate carrier handler and a substrate carrier transport system, the method comprising: providing a substrate carrier handler, the substrate carrier handler comprising a movable portion adapted to extend into a transport path along which a substrate carrier transport system transports substrate carriers, the movable portion further comprising a plurality of interface elements adapted to kinematically couple with respective complementary interface elements of a substrate carrier being transported along the transport path by the substrate carrier transport system; extending the movable portion into the transport path; detecting a first event comprising a first interface element of the movable portion kinematically coupling with a complementary first interface element of the substrate carrier; generating a first signal in response to the first event; detecting a second event comprising a second interface element of the movable portion kinematically coupling with a complementary second interface element of the substrate carrier; generating a second signal in response to the second event; and determining an alignment offset between the substrate carrier handler and the substrate carrier transport system based on the first and second signals by determining that an alignment off set exists between the substrate carrier handler and the substrate carrier transport system in excess of a predetermined acceptable alignment offset.