nanochip fab solutions

Over the last year the impact of the global pandemic and the high demand for semiconductors in key markets have put tremendous pressure on customers to run fabs faster and harder than ever. In this edition of Tool Talk, Applied Global Services (AGS) is offering reminders and recommendations that may help you up your game for maintenance and service and keep your production lines humming.

In today’s environment, where many industries are struggling with chip shortages, semiconductor manufacturers need new ways to streamline their device production processes and wring higher productivity from their existing fabs. The Advanced Planning and Scheduling Solutions from Applied Materials are designed to do exactly that.

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.

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated collaborative-while-remote development in the semiconductor industry because travel restrictions and improved cloud security have encouraged more semiconductor fabs to allow controlled visibility into fab data, according to participants at the Advanced Process Control and Smart Manufacturing (APCSM) 2020 Conference, held virtually in early October.

After years of hope and promise, the adoption of large-area OLED displays for televisions, laptops and computer monitors is finally beginning to happen.

Photonic devices such as lasers, photodetectors, microLEDs, and photonic-integrated-circuits (PICs) are the building blocks for new technologies, including facial recognition, 3D sensing, and laser imaging, detection and ranging (LiDAR).

Applied Materials’ efforts to build a robust and sustainable supply chain for semiconductor and display manufacturing received increased focus earlier this year when the company announced its Supply Chain Certification for Environmental and Social Sustainability initiative (SuCCESS2030).

Applied Materials’ new Applied SmartFactory® Fault Detection solution offers an economic, easy-to-implement way to improve tool and process performance in the back end.

As technology evolves, so does the demand for more power. Wide bandgap (WBG) materials such as gallium nitride (GaN) are demonstrating their potential as the backbone of next-generation power semiconductors.

Applied Materials is developing a quality improvement strategy that combines quality data in a cohesive and automated manner and maps the results into a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) system that provides users with recommended actions.