Nanochip Fab Solutions: Summer 2018

A LETTER FROM ALI SALEHPOUR - CLIMB THE PRODUCTIVITY CURVE FASTER

Few would argue that we are in an era of unprecedented growth at all nodes of chip manufacturing. Semiconductor industry revenues exceeded $419 billion in 2017, and forecasts call for about $450 billion this year. To meet the growing demand from a host of industries with aggressive time-to-market goals, new semiconductor fabs are springing up worldwide, and existing ones expanding.

LEVERAGING THE DIGITAL TWIN IN SMART MICROELECTRONICS MANUFACTURING

By James Moyne

Among the many tenets of smart manufacturing, “digital twin” solutions represent a significant opportunity for microelectronics manufacturers to leverage existing and emerging technologies to improve quality and throughput, and reduce variability and cost.

STMICROELECTRONICS DEMONSTRATES ADAPTIVE ENDPOINT CONTROL SYSTEM FOR 200MM CMP

By Leonardo Caudo, STMicroelectronics and Cosimo Patini, Applied Materials

Yield enhancement has always been a key goal for semiconductor manufacturers, but has taken on increased urgency given the strong demand for chips to meet a diverse and growing set of applications.

NEW GENERATION 10+ FABS ENABLE BIGGER, BRIGHTER, BETTER TV DISPLAYS

By Kerry Cunningham

Consumers are moving to larger and larger televisions, attracted by the chance to have a more immersive experience and the ability to see what is on the screen from farther away.

APPLIED MATERIALS TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED SERVICES SUPPORT NEXT-GENERATION MANUFACTURING

By David Lammers

As Moore’s Law has been stretched and the industry has become more global, more capital intensive, and more competitive, the focus of fab managers has expanded beyond device- and equipment breakthroughs to include significant advances in service technologies to boost the efficiency of semiconductor fabs.

MAXIMIZE OUTPUT FROM FLEETS OF TOOLS

By Haim Albalak and Chris Keith

Given today’s high market demand for semiconductor products, device manufacturers are looking for ways to maximize the output of good wafers from their fabs−and optimize their returns on invested capital.

EUROPE IN THE SWEET SPOT

By Adele Hars

The semiconductor industry has new drivers in automotive, Internet of Things (IoT), both high- and low power, sensors, and medical and industrial applications—which happen to be traditional European core strengths. The new CEO of French RTO Leti and other industry leaders and analysts see this as a golden opportunity.

INDUSTRY 4.0 REACHES INTO THE SUBFAB

By Andreas Neuber, Maxime Cayer, John Koenig and Shaun Crawford

To unlock the full potential of their manufacturing systems and personnel, companies in many industries are rapidly moving toward highly automated systems and digital data-driven methods and tools. Widely known as “smart manufacturing” or Industry 4.0, the resulting productivity improvements are often so dramatic that many people are calling this shift a new industrial revolution.

150MM ALIVE AND KICKING

By Mike Rosa, PhD.

Did you think chip making on 150mm wafers was a thing of the past? Think again. Many of the megatrends shaping our collective futures— mobility, autonomous driving and electric vehicles, 5G wireless communications, augmented- and virtual reality (AR/VR), and healthcare—depend on innovations created on the 150mm wafer size.

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