What's new? Everything! How can we ever get all of it to work together?
07/01/2001
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It's Semicon West time again, when the whole semiconductor device fabrication industry gets together to see what's new. And what is new this year? The answer: virtually everything. New materials like copper, low-k and high-k dielectrics, organic resists, abrasive-free slurries for CMP, and more, using new processes such as electroplating and dual damascene, and metrology for probing thinner, multi-level films and analyzing smaller particles and defects. While all the changes make life more interesting and exciting, they also make it harder than ever to try to become a more well-coordinated, more mature type of industry. To move successfully to 300mm fabs that may cost upwards of $2 billion, the industry will need smooth-flowing, well-integrated production lines that speed products to market with high yields and fast throughput. That's a tough challenge. Change has been constant from the early days of the semiconductor industry. What's different now is the exponentially increasing complexity. It's becoming harder than ever to get all the parts to work together.
This seeming dichotomy — everything changing just as we need to get better organized — should drive your approach to Semicon West this year. Look for good solutions to all the problems that come with the changes in materials, processes and tools. But also look for useful ideas for integrating all of these new things into a fluid system for fabricating devices more efficiently and at higher yield. There is still a huge gap between a semiconductor fab and an automobile assembly line or an efficient chemical plant or refinery.
The key to mature, large-scale assembly operations is a well-designed factory and a clearcut division of tasks. Some car companies used to make their own glass and steel and even transmissions, alternators, and starter motors. Now it is an assembly business. Some of today's auto companies even contract for body design, and buy engines. They concentrate on marketing and efficient factories. Assembly lines are highly automated and computer-controlled to move product along swiftly with uniform, precision results.
The semiconductor industry is moving gradually in this direction. Chipmakers want more from their tool and materials vendors, and these, in turn, need to get more from their suppliers. Outsourcing is increasing, so that each part of the chain can concentrate on its own key value-added segment. Most fabs no longer make their own masks. They abandoned assembling tools a long time back, but now they even want help with integrating tools for sequential processes. Almost all tools have standard mechanical interfaces now, but many toolmakers still tack on their own proprietary software to run them. Chipmakers no longer want to spin wheels trying to get a collection of incompatible systems to work together, particularly in a highly automated plant for 300mm wafer production. Standards and compatibility can help remedy this, for software as well as mechanical interfaces throughout the manufacturing process.
Built-in metrology with feedback capabilities to tune processes is becoming more important. E-diagnostics is also rising rapidly to help boost productivity and up-time. Look for the vendors who are doing more than just "selling iron," those looking for ways to make life better for users. While the industry now recognizes the importance of overall equipment efficiency (OEE), the focus is moving even beyond this to total fab efficiency. Anything that takes away a potential problem, or adds support or features that will make things work together more smoothly, reduce downtime, or provide intelligent feedback for production monitoring, will provide a bonus.
Thousands of interrelated processes are needed to go from bare wafer to working chip. When so many aspects of these processes are new, it is important to get beyond the details that can bog down fab efforts and concentrate on the bigger picture.
Certainly it's important to look for new technologies and materials with properties that can meet emerging needs. You'll find plenty of useful offerings within the Semicon West Product Panorama starting on p. 209, along with those in the June issue starting on p. 177, as well as in the halls of Moscone and the San Jose Convention Center if you get to the show this year. But it's also important to look beyond the specs for the features or services that will help everything to work more smoothly within the context of a total fab with many interlinked work cells and process tools. Ask more questions and probe deeper.
A slow time in the industry gives vendors a chance to concentrate on new technology as well as features that will help chipmakers increase productivity and yields. Look for those ideas, but also ask about efforts being made to link processes, meet standards, and get the total fab running more efficiently.
Any help with getting chip factories to run more smoothly will mean more time to concentrate on solving the technical problems of getting all these new things to work well together. With the industry pushing the envelop even ahead of the Roadmap, we need all the help we can get.