Applied Materials Automation Products Group provides automation software solutions to customers worldwide. In our experience deploying these solutions, we’ve found there is a significant gap in automation maturity between legacy fabs—typically 150 mm/200 mm front-end fabs utilizing more manual processes—and the newer 300 mm fabs that are running fully automated “lights out” operations. This is primarily due to significant barriers legacy manufacturers have historically faced in achieving higher levels of automation. In this article, we’ll look at how times are changing, and how these barriers are currently being addressed by the industry.
What’s driving demand for automation?
Every year, there is an increased demand for new technologies that require higher performance chips. As a result, semiconductor manufacturers have seen their unit volumes increase, while at the same time introducing more complex manufacturing processes. The additional steps and labor required to produce these higher performance chips are putting a significant strain on direct labor productivity, specifically in legacy factories that are running manual processes. Manufacturers understand that this increased demand and complexity in their manufacturing process will require automation because simply using additional labor to address the problem becomes too costly.
Barriers for legacy fabs
There are three primary areas we’ve identified as significant barriers to legacy factories seeking to implement automation. The first of these is cost of ownership. Legacy manufacturers are often smaller manufacturers with smaller budgets than bigger players in the industry, so significant infrastructure changes are too costly for them. Most of their facilities were built in the ’80s and early ’90s, before 300 mm manufacturing came along, so they weren’t built with overhead transport systems. They have lower ceilings and their tool spacing is inadequate for automated material handling to take place, putting them at a disadvantage. Conversely, in the 300 mm segment, facilities were constructed with automated material handling systems to compensate for the larger front opening unified pods (FOUPs) which are used to transport larger 300mm carriers. Consequently, these manufacturers were put in a better position to adopt higher levels of automation.
Retrofitting an existing legacy factory that wasn’t built with automated material handling from initial construction can be extremely costly. Reconfiguring existing facilities involves moving high cost processing machinery, undertaking large scale construction projects, and re-training existing operations— all while not disrupting on-going production. Also falling into the cost-prohibitive category are the high upfront costs of high-powered servers required to run software solutions in semiconductor manufacturing solutions.
Another factor that plagues legacy factories’ ability to achieve higher levels of automation is access to talent that can maintain these robust systems. Large IT teams are required to integrate and maintain automation systems. Often, legacy factories have smaller budgets and much smaller IT teams, so it becomes infeasible for them to maintain automation systems in addition to maintaining Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and other critical IT infrastructure.
Finally, legacy systems, which are typically comprised of siloed point solutions, lack functional integration that is essential for a fully automated factory. Many legacy factories have multiple home-grown solutions and/or commercial solutions from different vendors throughout their automation stack that don’t fully integrate with each other without significant development work. This lack of integration is depicted below in Figure 1. Manufacturers understand they need to integrate these systems to achieve a fully automated factory, but there’s significant development effort required to do so, making this an immense challenge for manufacturers with smaller IT teams.
Strategic partnerships and out of box solutions
Despite the financial and logistical barriers legacy manufacturers face, solutions now exist to ease the transition towards a more highly automated manufacturing environment. Commercial vendors have begun forming strategic partnerships to co-develop lower cost “out of box” or pre-integrated automation solutions for customers. These offerings are significantly reducing the cost of ownership for customers as they reduce the amount of IT overhead required to develop and maintain.
Additionally, hardware and software providers are starting to deliver modular solutions that can coexist with existing systems in running fabs. Examples of this are MES-agnostic solutions that do not require a specific MES, but rather work with any type of MES solution, even ones which are developed by the customers themselves.
Robotics
Advancements in mobile robotics (such as ARVs, AGVs and co-bots) are meeting the unique needs of legacy factories without requiring them to completely refactor their facility. An existing factory already has an infrastructure and systems in place which are not often well suited to add traditional Automated Material Handling Systems (AMHS) such as Overhead Hoist Transport Systems (OHT). OHT’s require specific ceiling heights and multi-year construction projects to install and configure the guided rail systems in a fab, which not only is costly, but disruptive to an on-going fab operation. Mobile robotics on the other hand, can be rolled out on the floor in specific areas rather than requiring a semiconductor manufacturer to remodel or deploy a robotics solution all at once. Legacy factories are finding success in deploying mobile robotics in areas with tight spacing and low ceilings without major disruptions to production.
MES advancements
The Manufacturing Execution System, or MES, is critical software that is responsible for monitoring and controlling manufacturing operations. Often, customers have an MES that is either a commercial MES that is decades old, or a homegrown MES that was developed potentially 10 or more years ago that hasn’t grown with the complexity of their current manufacturing process. To bridge the gap as requirements are added to the production process, organizations build point solutions around the MES that lead to the integration problem noted earlier.
Advancements in manufacturing execution systems that have made them ready to handle the complex semiconductor processes that are run today have also reduced the barriers to automation. Low-code and no code developer tools have helped improve developer productivity and reduced the need for IT resources. Manufacturers have a tool to help with the integration work required in an automated factory and can now be more productive in maintaining automated software solutions.
Conclusion
Manufacturers understand the importance of automation, but legacy factories have faced many challenges in implementing it. It has been difficult for them to keep up with the industry leaders due to these barriers. Recently, the industry has made great strides in addressing these issues through lowering costs and providing greater technological resources. Ultimately, we’re driving towards a more democratized automation landscape in the semiconductor industry.
