By Brad Eaton and Amitabh Sabharwal

Strong demand for semiconductors at both leading-and trailing-edge technology nodes is driving an urgent, growing global need to troubleshoot, repair and upgrade tools as quickly as possible—and to accelerate installations and product qualification to speed production ramps.

Recently, these challenges have been compounded by global travel restrictions and supply chain disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation has spotlighted the need for fab managers to further emphasize business continuity planning and ensure resource allocation to support ongoing production despite the most serious unanticipated events.

The mission of Applied Global Services (AGS) has always been to help customers keep their tools up and running at optimum performance levels. Even before the pandemic erupted worldwide in 2020, Applied has been utilizing and expanding its portfolio of service solutions to meet the growing customer need for remote support.

For example, more than a decade ago Applied began offering comprehensive service agreements that included some remote connectivity capabilities. Today, Applied’s remote service capabilities are enabled by a unique and growing portfolio of digital service tools. These give global customers fast, easy access to Applied’s network of experts, enabling the quick response times and expert repair, maintenance and qualification services customers require.

Applied has continued to invest heavily in developing these digital tools with enhanced remote support capability. As a result, when the COVID pandemic restricted travel, Applied transitioned seamlessly in ramping support levels remotely without missing a step. In fact, the number of tools covered under comprehensive service agreements actually grew substantially during 2020, even as travel for support decreased about 80%. Instances where digital tools—such as Applied’s field service server, with its powerful analytics engine—were used to resolve technical support escalations grew by an unprecedented 150%.

INSIGHTFUL COLLABORATIONS WITH EXPERTS

These remote engagements also give customers an efficient and effective alternative to local third-party service providers. While local providers may be conveniently located near the customer’s fab, they may need support from specialized experts to resolve complex problems quickly.

Currently, the digital tools at the core of Applied’s remote service offerings include:

• Remote Tool Access: Applied’s highly secure remote connect software allows Applied service personnel anywhere in the world to view a system’s graphical user interface (GUI) in real time. They perform basic functions just as if they were physically located at the tool using the local GUI.
• Field Service Server: Applied’s secure data analytics engine is installed at customer sites, enabling Applied service teams to work with high efficiency. Once customer permission is granted, AGS service personnel can access this secure engine to collect high-resolution sensor data, perform historical reviews, see fleet-level overviews, and access equipment health indicators.

The capabilities of Applied’s analytics engine accelerate diagnostics, resulting in shorter mean time to repair (MTTR); enhanced preventive and predictive maintenance for reduced scrap, increased output/uptime and faster green-to-green times; and quicker tool startups and chamber-matching for quicker product ramps.

• Remote Video Assist: Applied employs the latest augmented-reality (AR) headsets, plus other video-capture techniques, to remotely direct onsite Applied CEs, reducing the time to problem resolution. These technologies enable remote Applied experts to access the very same view as the onsite CE.

Remote video assist also offers other powerful benefits. One is that the remote expert can annotate and point to objects in the video feed, and the onsite CE sees where the expert is pointing as if they were together in the same location. Another is that remote experts can upload technical drawings for the onsite CE to reference while viewing real objects, leaving both the CE’s hands free to perform complex maintenance tasks. During the pandemic, remote video assist has been deployed at 28 sites by more than 1,000 Applied onsite CEs.

Our digital tools are deployed in all regions and specially trained engineers are using them in their regular shift operations. A majority of customer tools under service agreements can now be remotely accessed and supported. Applied’s ability to respond remotely to customers during the COVID-19 era has demonstrated the value of this robust portfolio of tools, as the following customer examples demonstrate.

RELIABILITY UPGRADE FOR ECD TOOL

At one customer site, the system module of an Applied Materials Mustang^® electrochemical deposition (ECD) tool used in production process characterization (PPC) needed to be upgraded to reduce downtime and wafer scrap.

The task was an uncommon and complex upgrade, but because of COVID-19 travel restrictions Applied was unable to quickly deploy specialized service personnel to perform the work. Instead, Applied used remote video assist to connect the onsite Applied CE to Applied experts located in the U.S. or elsewhere, who coached the CE through the unfamiliar and difficult procedure (Figure 1).