US Patent Issued to Applied Materials on March 3 for "Passive separation cassette and carrier" (Texas, Massachusetts Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,568,797, issued on March 3, was assigned to Applied Materials Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.).

"Passive separation cassette and carrier" was invented by James B. Exley (Jarrell, Texas), Ross Bandy (Milton, Mass.) and James D. Strassner (Austin, Texas).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system for holding and transporting one or more workpieces is disclosed. The system includes a cassette that is configured to support a carrier and a workpiece at two different elevations. In this way, as the carrier with the workpiece is placed on the cassette by a first robot, the carrier moves down further, as the workpiece is supported by taller support posts....