Patent 7717481 was granted and assigned to Applied Materials on May, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A robotic end effector or blade suitable for transferring a substrate in a processing system is provided. In some embodiments, an end effector can include a body having opposing mounting and distal end, the body fabricated from a single mass of ceramic. The body can include a pair of arcuate lips extending upward from an upper surface of the body. Each lip is disposed on a respective finger disposed at the distal end of the body. An arcuate inner wall extends upward from the upper surface at the mounting end of the body. The inner wall and lips define a substrate receiving pocket. A plurality of contact pads extend upward from the upper surface of the body for supporting the substrate thereon. A recess is formed in a bottom surface of the body to accommodate a mounting clamp.