Semiconductor Fabs

In January 2022, SEMI Taiwan released SEMI E187 – Specification for Cybersecurity of Fab Equipment. What cybersecurity pain points does SEMI E187 ultimately address?

Speaking to nearly 300 executives gathered at the Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) 2022 in early April, Inna Skvortsova, Market Analyst on the Market Intelligence Team at SEMI, presented upbeat industry forecasts for 2022 and beyond.

The increasing complexity of IC manufacturing poses a number of challenges including the mask data preparation required to enable technology improvements such as multi-beam (MB) mask writers and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Thiago Figueiro, VP of Sales & Marketing of Aselta weighs in.

In this article, several experts weigh in on considerations for developing the smart manufacturing workforce that will help to alleviate the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing talent shortage, even as multiple, data-intensive $1 billion to $10 billion fabrication facilities come online.

For the semiconductor industry to flourish, all chip ecosystems must embrace closer ties, greater openness, and more flexibility to co-innovate solutions in today’s rapidly unfolding global digital transformation.

The USEPA recently established the PFAS Low Volume Exemption Stewardship Program, encouraging all PFAS Low Volume Exemption (LVE) holders to withdraw the LVEs or submit Pre-Manufacturing Notice (PMN) applications in order to continue to manufacture and/or import the substances in the U.S.

Demand for hi-tech manufactured goods is at an all-time high and is expected to grow significantly in our new digital age, COVID-19 economy. This is especially true for semiconductor chips. Chip manufacturers have been working to meet this demand by building new factories and by optimizing processes and equipment in existing fabs. While there is much media coverage about new factories planned by leading-edge chipmakers and government investments in the semiconductor sector, greenfield fabs entail significant capital expenditures and are sometimes fraught with complex political concerns. As a result, they can take several years to complete and reach their planned production capacity. Instead, the semiconductor industry needs to optimize existing factories in order to increase productivity and yield and meet growing demand by implementing smart manufacturing solutions. Smart manufacturing solutions will inherently reduce costs with more efficient and automated processes, and those savings can be reinvested for the next wave of solutions. Chip Industry on the Bleeding Edge Semiconductor manufacturers have always been focused on bleeding-edge technology to outflank strong competition and build the best products – faster and cheaper. Today, pioneering organizations are using data to optimize manufacturing processes and equipment, a practice known as Smart Manufacturing. While there are many definitions of Smart Manufacturing, the essence is maximizing the utility of big data generated in these factories by leveraging three pillars: Sensing, Connecting, and Predicting. It is not just the digitization in manufacturing, but it is also about turning the data into actions that generate value – an effort the SEMI Smart Manufacturing Committee is driving based on the three pillars. Optimizing return on investment is the ultimate goal. SEMI Smart Manufacturing Initiative activity is based on three pillars that support the goal of increasing ROI. Making the Right Decision, Faster Smart manufacturing practices enable organizations to make the right decisions and take action faster based on insights generated from real-time and historical data. This requires data management technologies and applications that can process, analyze, and act on information instantly. It has become ever more difficult to process and discern the relevant data or signal from the vast volume of data, perform analytics or develop new ML or AI analytic tools, and then make the critical decisions to solve problems as close to real-time as possible. Who’s Responsible – IT or OT? In the past IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operations Technology) were separate entities within organizations, with IT focused on storing large amounts of data for enterprise systems and OT concentrated on using data to perform specific functions. Smart Manufacturing often demands combining IT and OT, difficult in rigid organizations that operate the two organizations independently and lack the infrastructure to implement comprehensive solutions. Success requires executive leadership sponsorship, motivated technical personnel and, most importantly, a clear deliverable on the value in implementing Smart Manufacturing. Many organizations have introduced top-level leadership positions such as a Chief Information Officer or Chief Data and Analytics Officer to address this convergence and many of these leaders are embracing Smart Manufacturing practices. The SEMI Smart Manufacturing community includes many of these leaders and therefore has highlighted the importance in the return on investment for Smart Manufacturing solutions. Read more about IT and OT convergence and note that Smart Manufacturing is synonymous with Industry 4.0. The SEMI Smart Manufacturing Initiative covers the entire supply chain. Get Smart in Smart Manufacturing While new technologies and applications are being created to deal with mountains of data, it is the underlying methodologies and practices that are key to a successful Smart Manufacturing deployment. SEMI, the trade association representing the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, is in a perfect position to evangelize Smart Manufacturing experiences and best practices for the entire manufacturing community. The more than 30 member companies participating in the SEMI Smart Manufacturing Initiative bring more than 500 years of collective experience and knowledge to the topic. Many segments of the supply chain participate in the SEMI Smart Manufacturing Initiative including packaging, assembly, SMT and PCB assembly, test, software, data management, sensor and material suppliers. Learn How to Manufacture Smarter SEMI SMART Manufacturing is hosting two great conferences in the coming months – the Global Smart Manufacturing Conference (GSMC) and the SEMICON West Smart Manufacturing Pavilion. As a leader of the organizing committee and chair for the SEMICON West Smart Manufacturing Pavilion, I encourage people who want to learn how to implement Smart Manufacturing or expand their knowledge of Smart Manufacturing to attend these events. The GSMC will feature keynotes highlighting the value of Smart Manufacturing, offer tutorials on the three pillars, and introduce several case studies for each of the pillars. Thirty-two organizations – ranging from global cloud providers, semiconductor factory operators, leading equipment vendors and software application solution companies – will present. See the full agenda here. The SEMICON West Smart Manufacturing Pavilion will compliment GSMC by showcasing a number of use cases that highlight the value of Smart Manufacturing. Panel discussions will deep dive into the challenges of implementing these best practices and the direction smart manufacturing is taking in the coming years. Our goal for these events is for you to take this knowledge back to your companies, implement and improve on the detailed solutions highlighted at the conferences, and return next year to share your success stories with the community. See you soon, in person or virtually! About the Author Bill Pierson is VP of Semiconductors and Manufacturing at KX, leading the growth of streaming data analytics in this vertical. Bill is also a chair for the SEMICON West Smart Manufacturing Conference and an active team member of the SEMI Americas Chapter. He has extensive experience in the semiconductor industry including previous experiences at Samsung, ASML and KLA. Bill specializes in applications, analytics, and control. He lives in Austin, Texas, and when not at work can be found on the rock-climbing cliffs or at his son’s soccer matches.

After logging record shipments in the first quarter of 2021, the silicon wafer industry may need to start greenfield projects as soon as this year to boost capacity over the next two years as market demand and average selling prices continue to improve.

As we move through Q2 of 2021, it seems that the world is finally approaching normalcy. But I don’t believe our lives and businesses will ever be the same. Travel is unlikely to return to the same level as pre-COVID-19 for many years. I’m sure many companies will establish tighter travel policies and budgets as virtual conferencing has proven to be beneficial and cost-effective. Patients and doctors who were skeptical of telemedicine are embracing it, and although it’s not perfect, it has filled a needed gap. Online learning essentially happened over a weekend and will now be part of many curriculums and programs. All of these elements have spurred our semiconductor industry into a super cycle. Demand for chips is leading to an increased demand for semiconductor equipment. Semiconductor capital equipment expenditures in 2020 surpassed $63 billion and are forecast to top $70 billion in 2021. The secondary equipment market typically makes up about 5% to 10% of that. Our inquiries have definitely increased this year. With this in mind, I’d like to share some thoughts for the remainder of the year. Storage of Chipmaking Equipment Not New The semiconductor industry has been experiencing an equipment shortage for some time. It is difficult for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to support such a large variety of products and technologies. Some companies use equipment for manufacturing 150mm, 200mm and 300mm wafers. Fabs still run 30-year-old technology on 150mm wafers while the latest technology is manufactured on 300mm wafers. We’ve also seen new technologies like silicon carbide (SiC) being developed on these smaller wafer sizes. Unfortunately, some OEMs stopped making 150mm and 200mm some time ago and have only recently jumped back into the market. These OEMs have had to balance technological advances, pricing, and manufacturing capacity to meet this demand since their primary focus is on 300mm equipment. Third-party refurbished equipment suppliers have also experienced an increase in demand over the last several years. We see it increasing at all technology levels over the next three to five years. This translates to increased equipment pricing for both new and used equipment, as well as increased lead times. Growing Demand for Legacy Tools Many electronic products we use and are familiar with don't require state-of-the-art technology. For instance, cellphones, electric vehicles, wearables, monitors and industrial products still contain many chips manufactured on 200mm wafers using 200mm equipment. There are still approximately 200 200mm fabs worldwide and this makes up about 25% of all wafer capacity regardless of wafer size. These fabs manufacture analog devices, MEMS products, power management ICs, RF devices, discrete devices and sensors. We have also seen an increase in lead times for 200mm equipment. Typical lead times of three to six months have increased in some cases to one year or more. This situation has created a dramatic increase in chip making equipment prices and we do not expect much relief there. Many OEMs transitioned to 300mm equipment prior to 2010. Revenue and profit margins are much higher for them on 300mm equipment. 200mm manufacturing was supported by many third parties for a while. However, in 2016 we saw a resurgence in 200mm equipment, and at that time many OEMs began jump-starting their supply chains. It took some time for them to develop new supply chains, upgrade technology and in some cases hire newly trained engineers to support these new tool sets. All this costs money, which is why we will continue to see an increase in new legacy equipment pricing. Because manufacturers and products may not be able to support these prices, we expect the robust third-party ecosystem to continue. SurplusGLOBAL's Response to this Demand One of the advantages we bring to the secondary equipment market is our ability to recycle technology. We continuously search for opportunities to purchase large packages of tools from companies that are transitioning technology nodes, moving from 200mm to 300mm wafer size or changing product lines. We spend approximately $65 million to $100 million each year on purchasing equipment and in some cases storing it for the right customer. For instance, a memory company may be changing technology nodes and no longer needs its equipment. This use to happen on a predictable schedule. Instead of scrapping that equipment, SurplusGLOBAL purchases and stores it. Sometimes we only need to store it for one month before relocating it. However, in many cases, we store it for one year or more. We may power it on at a later date if it is in good condition. In some cases, we work with an OEM or third party to have it refurbished and ready for a new customer. In response to the need for more secondary market equipment, we have opened up additional offices in Japan and Singapore to stay close to and better support our customers in those regions. Finally, our biggest and most recent endeavor is building our Semiconductor Equipment Cluster, which opens in July 2021. Learn more about the SurplusGLOBAL Semiconductor Equipment Cluster. Emerald Greig is executive vice president Americas at SurplusGLOBAL.

The SEMI Smart Manufacturing Americas Chapter, a key driver of the Global Smart Manufacturing Initiative, accelerates awareness of digital and data-driven strategies and implementations to help speed adoption of smart manufacturing. In 2021, the Chapter will focus on expanding its work across the industry to include academic and research initiatives. The semiconductor industry saw an unprecedented focus on improving digital monitoring of manufacturing activity in 2020, partially due to COVID-19. The Americas Chapter shared case studies on new tools and techniques for social distancing in fabs, aides for remote maintenance, and tips for remote workers. The Chapter also introduced its three pillars of Sensing, Connecting and Predicting and offered related programs. The Global Smart Manufacturing Conference (GSMC) highlighted the significance of universities and research institutions in the development of smart manufacturing with their focus on joint research for broad dissemination. To help drive smart manufacturing advances, at GSMC several offered non-proprietary tutorials on topic including the following: Integrating sensors for acquisition – CEA-Leti Applying new AI and ML tools and strategies to manufacturing – Binghamton University Digital tools for planning, qualifying and management and scheduling in fabs – MINES Saint-Étienne. Adding AI tools to robot work in a smart factory – KAIST Institutes By continuously highlighting the activities of these and other institutions through presentations, interviews, articles and blog posts, we will draw more attention to what is on the horizon for smart manufacturing in 2021. The SEMI Smart Manufacturing Americas Chapter also plans to elevate activities important to the Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT), Surface-Mount Technology (SMT) and Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA) segments of the industry including programs on inspection, traceability and the SEMI SMT-ELS Standard for SMT automation. Thurston Taylor, marketing expert at Tokyo Electron and Vice Chair of the Americas Chapter, notes that “With increasingly more demanding requirements for bump, assembly and test, smart manufacturing and applied data science are necessary to achieve back-end goals now and in the future.” Also, many companies are implementing smart manufacturing applications and assessing various strategies to increase their smart manufacturing capabilities. Members of the Americas Chapter plan to review and develop self-assessment documents and maturity models that apply to front-end wafer fabs all the way through packaging and assembly facilities. “Moving forward it is imperative for all of us to up the intensity on specific ROI vectors such as quality, cost, productivity, sustainability and safety leveraging our smart manufacturing SEMI framework of Sensing, Connecting and Predicting,” said noted Bobby Mitra, worldwide director of Smart Manufacturing at Texas Instruments and Americas Chapter Chair. “By offering special flagship events, invited talks, ROI case-studies and ROI criteria in maturity models, we’ll bring high value to the smart manufacturing industry.” Chapter members also will begin mapping the skills needed to implement and support increasingly digital manufacturing capabilities, including any new skill sets, to help companies develop their hiring, training and management strategies. The mapping effort aims to support companies in building a strong pipeline of employees who can efficiently manage and operate smart manufacturing facilities. For its part, the Americas Chapter’s Go Green Subcommittee will focus on applying smart manufacturing technology to reducing the electronic industry’s carbon footprint by accurately tracking energy waste improving overall fab efficiency. Stay tuned for details on activities planned for our chapters in Europe, China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and Taiwan. To learn more about each chapter and how to get involved, please visit the SEMI Smart Manufacturing Hub and sign up for our newsletter. Ayo Kajopaiye is senior project coordinator, Collaborative Technology Platforms, at SEMI.