Dear Mr. Sutula,

Thank you for your comment on Optinet’s tools and your interest in our Ultimate Gantry. Although in the last few weeks, since we started publishing in Machine Design, we had over 2,000 worldwide hits a week, you are the first person to show interest in our Gantry.

Introduction

To answer your question, lets start with the general definition of the word “Ultimate” taken from an arbitrary Web dictionary.

Among the various definitions the one which probably best fits our intriguing Marketing statement, which points to our “Ultimate” Gantry, is  “Being last in a series, or progression” . With your permission I will explain why.

Types Of Gantries

There are various types of gantries known in the marketplace and used in manufacturing process equipment such as FPD ( plat panel television ), Solar Cells ( hot market nowadays ), and Genomic Drug Discovery. Gantries are considered to be the most sophisticated XY positioning systems among all  other XY machine configurations ( e.g. compounded XY and Split axes ). Their advantage is in their smallest footprint per XY travel and inline process capability.

There are several Gantry configurations to choose from, depending on the process machine requirements in throughput and precision. The simplest Gantry configuration is one where a single Y motor with single feedback device ( encoder ) is driving a short cross X beam. The next level of sophistication is a gantry with  two Y motors  driving a slightly longer X beam using one encoder as if they where one. Yet they distribute their forces better on the two sides of the X c.g. and somewhat reduce Yaw error. Finally, the highest level of sophistication known today is a gantry configuration consisting of two independent Y motors driving a long X axis with two independent encoders. This type of configuration allows the process machine to be larger, faster and more accurate because the two Y axes do not fight each other but rather collaborate with an algorithm of a smart controller.

The Direction towards an Ultimate Positioning Machine

Our mission at Optinet is to provide optimal positioning solutions for process tools that our customers develop. We start by educating them about the available options as described above, and continue with our design philosophy towards the ultimate cost / performance solution for their application. This in simple terms can be achieved, according to our experience, by building an intelligent machine where just like human can quickly adopt the changing environment. This characteristic requires good sensing devices, very high stiffness and low weight which together with an intelligent controller brain can have very fast reflexes to counteract a wide spectrum of possible vicious disturbances. The bottom line for the process manufacturer is higher precision with higher throughput at a lower cost.

Optinet’s Marketing Positioning of its Positioning Gantry

Last year we have completed together with our business partners the development of what we believe is the world’s most accurate gantry machine for the flat panel industry. This machine was developed for one of the world’s leading Process equipment manufacturers. The machine concept is based on two patents, one of which is Optinet’s. In its ultimate configuration,  our gantry configuration provides an integrated XY stage with two independent motors and two encoders for both the Y axis the X axis. The machine is highly integrated at very low height, which allows for very stiff and lower weight. It is being controlled by a servo controller, which provides forward and inverse Kinematics transformations to position a very large substrate under the process tools fast and precisely. The Benefits of our gantry configuration versus the other known configurations in the art are as follows:

1. Integrated X,Y for positioning very large Substrate Panels, e.g. 3 x 3 meters, yielding stiff and light weight design which is the first step towards an ultimate machine
2. An integrated rotary Ө stage, up to 45 degrees, with virtual center of rotation, which to the best of our knowledge is not available by any of the standard Gantries
3. Relatively low height which reduces the so called Abbe errors due to X and Y pitch
4. Capability of simultaneously correcting for linear and angular errors in X,Y, and Ө axes on the fly
5. Capability of large alignment of the Substrate with respect to the Process tools, using registration points on the substrate and a camera on the tool
6. Capability of obtaining greater improvement in cost performance ( i.e.  Precision * Throughput / Machine Cost )  with respect to standard gantry configurations
7. Finally, being "last in the series", our Ultimate gantry has two parallel X stages and two parallel Y stages, giving it the capability of XYӨ positioning at any time by any three.

Please Note: The capability of positioning a large body in an XY plane and rotating it about a virtual center of rotation can be useful in Robotic applications where the entire substrate, work or body can be rotated about a virtual point on the body, under a rigidly fixed tool or a microscope, without loosing contact of the point from the tool or from the field of view of the microscope. This positioning feature may also find interesting applications in medical tools such as Robotic Surgery, Tomography and Radiotherapy.

I am not sure if it all made sense to you why we nicknamed our Patent Pending gantry with the word “Ultimate” . But the fact that you stopped and asked that question is considered by itself as a marketing success. Thank you once again for giving us the opportunity to discuss this subject for you.