Lenson Wong, Director of Marketing, Berkeley Process Control
What are the challenges facing design engineers in building machinery for semiconductor applications? Semiconductor tools require great precision and repeatable control of complex processes. The stakes are very high as even minor damage to a single wafer can cause the entire wafer to be scrapped, and a single processed wafer can contain end products worth more than $50,000. Tool manufacturers must be agile to meet customer-specific tool configurations and deliver them rapidly. These challenges are forcing tool manufacturers to re-examine how tools are built. Many tool designs utilize legacy custom in-house designed printed circuit boards requiring extensive custom software. Costs are increasing to procure the old technology and even more in engineering effort to support. Tool manufacturers must meet changing and demanding requirements of semiconductor device manufacturers rapidly and with lower development and support costs.
What trends are shaping semiconductor manufacturing machinery development? Moore's Law drives every area of the semiconductor industry including tool manufacturing. End users are requiring greater utility in tools with smaller footprints and lower costs to build and maintain. The future of control is a single control design for all tool configurations and the end of point-to-point terminations. For example, I/O control is currently performed through custom control hardware or I/O products that require numerous module types for each I/O type. The future is a single I/O module that is configurable for control of any standard I/O device without point-to-point terminations. Regardless of tool configuration, a manufacturer can use the exact same I/O control hardware design. No control design change is required for adding new features, devices, or even processes.
What motion and automation control technologies are making an impact in semiconductor manufacturing? Manual operator interaction with semiconductor tools is costly because it introduces variables into a well controlled process. Any manual intervention cannot be performed with a high level of repeatability, and intervention can disturb the precisely controlled process and introduce foreign particles into the process. One example is calibration of wafer handling robots. Fully automated calibration of wafer handling robotics eliminates this variable and makes it possible to fully calibrate a wafer handling system in an atmospheric or vacuum environment with no manual operator intervention.
What changes/goals are influencing control system design in semiconductor applications? Semiconductor tool manufacturers are realizing that their development effort must be reduced significantly to maintain profitability. Semiconductor manufacturers are focusing their R&D effort where their intellectual property is—in the tool process and not in the low-level development of the control platform.
What important software issues are facing design engineers as they develop motion solutions for semiconductor manufacturing? Design engineers are realizing they should not be developing software for motion control applications. Motion control applications can be developed by using built-in configuration utilities.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
The push to achieving more intelligent, integrated manufacturing is putting a strong focus on networking and connectivity as key enabling technologies.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
0 
