Can smart manufacturing make the whole fab more efficient?
To unlock the full potential of their manufacturing systems and personnel, companies in many industries are rapidly moving toward highly automated systems and digital data-driven methods and tools. Widely known as “smart manufacturing” or Industry 4.0, the resulting productivity improvements are often so dramatic that many people are calling this shift a new industrial revolution.
The semiconductor industry, already more highly digitalized than many others, has been an early adopter of Industry 4.0 technologies. One example is the SECS/GEM equipment interface protocol, introduced a number of years ago for equipment-to-host data communications in highly automated fabs.
However, significant gaps remain in Industry 4.0 implementations in semiconductor manufacturing. One area that has not typically been included in such efforts is the subfab—but that is beginning to change as fab output soars to meet strong demand for chips.
The subfab consumes more energy and resources than any other part of the production facility, so as output increases manufacturers are scrambling to find better ways to manage energy, water and chemical usage while still maintaining high levels of safety, reducing emissions and minimizing costs.
Read more here.
This will go down as a good year for the semiconductor industry, where new markets and innovation were both necessary and rewarded.
New architectures, packaging approaches gain ground as costs increase, but shrinking features continues to play a role.
The term creates hope for some, fear for others, and confusion for all.
Work begins on building a quantum computing ecosystem.
Semiconductor devices face many hazards before and after manufacturing that can cause them to fail prematurely.
Interest in the open-source ISA marks a significant shift among chipmakers, but it will require continued industry support to be successful.
Chips will cost more to design and manufacture even without pushing to the latest node, but that’s not the whole story.
This will go down as a good year for the semiconductor industry, where new markets and innovation were both necessary and rewarded.
Slowdown due to impact on timing, and dependencies between power, thermal and timing that may not be caught by signoff tools.
Experts at the Table, Part 1: Impact on the supply chain, who’s using advanced packaging, and the cost of packaging versus device scaling.
Access to source code makes it attractive for custom applications, but gaps remain in the tool flow and in software.
Technology adds more granularity, but starting point for design shifts as architectures cope with greater volumes of data.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Leave a Reply