I just came back from the 2023 ASMC in Saratoga Springs, which was packed with 15 technical sessions and lots of great presentations. One topic was in the air throughout all the sessions – will the semiconductor industry have enough skilled operators, technicians and engineers ? Almost all keynotes brought this point up and there…… Continue reading Data is the new oil – or is it skilled workforce ?
ASMC 2023
The Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference in Saratoga Springs is just one month away ! I’m looking forward to meet many industry experts and discuss Factory Physics topics in person. Here are some of my personal Agenda highlights: Keynote: Salvatore Coffa from STMicroelectronics – Silicon Carbide Keynote: Thomas Sonderman from SkyWater Technologies – US Chips Act…… Continue reading ASMC 2023
Product Mix and FAB performance
Semiconductor manufacturing is a highly complex and dynamic industry that requires constant innovation and adaptation to meet the changing needs of customers. One of the biggest challenges in this industry is managing changes to the product mix, which can have a significant impact on the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the manufacturing process. Product mix…… Continue reading Product Mix and FAB performance
Rework and FAB cycle time
In todays post I will discuss the impact of rework on the overall FAB cycle time. Rework can happen for various reasons and at different process steps. Most common it occurs after a lot has been processed at a photo step. The picture below shows a typical scenario After a lot was processed at the…… Continue reading Rework and FAB cycle time
Equipment Uptime and FAB speed, part 3
My last post closed with a poll on achieved M-ratio values. Here are the results: Unfortunately, not too many readers participated – so the statistics of the result are a bit weak. To some extend the data is reflecting my personal experience – what I have seen in various FABs. There is a significant amount…… Continue reading Equipment Uptime and FAB speed, part 3
Equipment Uptime and FAB speed, part 2
To illustrate which uptime pattern from the last post might be more favorable I will add some tool utilization to the same 3 charts: the combined charts for the 3 scenarios are these: This example assumes that the productive usage every single day is a flat 80% of the total time, which is a very…… Continue reading Equipment Uptime and FAB speed, part 2
Equipment Uptime and FAB speed, part 1
I like to resume with the posts on the topic of FAB cycle time drivers. As mentioned in an earlier post – these are some of the key drivers for factory cycle time: overall factory size (number of equipment available to run a certain step) overall equipment uptime and uptime stability M-ratio rework rate product…… Continue reading Equipment Uptime and FAB speed, part 1
Summertime (Blog) Blues
It has been a while, but summer in upstate NY is too beautiful to not enjoy it as much as possible. Downside is (at least for the blog) – I spend less time on the computer to write new posts. So instead posting about Factory Physics and Automation topics, I do more of this: Kayaking…… Continue reading Summertime (Blog) Blues
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19th Innovation Forum for Automation
Last week I had the honor to present a keynote at the 19th Innovation Forum for Automation in Dresden, Germany. After 2 years of virtual conferences, this year it was a full in person event again. Here are the slides of my talk: 19th_innovation_forum_automation_talk_tbeeg_extDownload update: here are the video recordings of both days ( these…… Continue reading 19th Innovation Forum for Automation
Wafer FABs – how many are there ?
Today only a super short post. If you have ever wondered, how many Semiconductor Wafer FABs are there – here is a great article on that topic from Daniel Nenni on SemiWiki: LINK
Fab cycle time and capacity planning
I did not discuss the results of the last poll yet. This post will focus on that. Unfortunately, not a lot of readers did participate. The data is statistically more on the weak side, but I think the outcome is in line with what I was expecting: It seems that 70% of the voters use…… Continue reading Fab cycle time and capacity planning
US Semiconductor Ecosystem Outlook
I recently attended the Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference (ASMC) in Saratoga Springs, NY and listened to a very interesting presentation. Bill Wiseman from McKinsey & Company spoke about the future of the US semiconductor ecosystem and a few fundamental challenges which will have significant impact. Bill is a longterm insider of the semiconductor business and…… Continue reading US Semiconductor Ecosystem Outlook
View into a FAB
Happy Easter everybody ! Today only a very short post – since I’m discussing here normally how semiconductor FABs work in terms of cycle time and output, I thought why not have a quick look inside a FAB ? This post was triggered by a recent YouTube post of an Intel FAB walk, which nicely…… Continue reading View into a FAB
Equipment load port utilization vs. FAB speed
I received and interesting comment to one of the older posts: The topic is indeed very interesting. Most modern semiconductor processing equipment come with 4 load ports. Maine reason for that is to ensure the process chambers can be utilized as much as possible and do not have idle time because of exchange of lots.…… Continue reading Equipment load port utilization vs. FAB speed
Wafer FAB – size does matter !
In one of the earlier blog posts (LINK) I received interesting feedback on what are “acceptable” FAB cycle times. The results showed big differences and I think this is mainly based on voters professional experience. There are a lot of factors which influence a factories capability to achieve a certain cycle time. If we assume…… Continue reading Wafer FAB – size does matter !
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The value of 1 day of factory cycle time
Thank you everyone who participated in the last poll. Participation was significantly down beside the fact, that there were plenty of post viewers. My interpretation is that the readers are not too sure about the actual value of 1 day of cycle time. This observation is also in line with my personal experiences from working…… Continue reading The value of 1 day of factory cycle time
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Chip shortage and FAB performance, part 3
Today only a very short post ! Very interesting poll results ! Of course the poll left a lot of things open to free interpretation and assumptions, but as expected voters had different opinions. Here is the feedback chart: The same data in the context of the operation curve: If I ignore the outliers at…… Continue reading Chip shortage and FAB performance, part 3
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Chip shortage and FAB performance, part 2
Reflecting on the wide spread of acceptable wait times and therefore acceptable FAB cycle times from the poll results, I was wondering: Why do people have these different opinions. I think it has to do with the actual factory conditions, the individual voters have experienced in their professional careers. To have fast cycle times is…… Continue reading Chip shortage and FAB performance, part 2
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Chip shortage and FAB performance, part 1
I like to be open – I could not resist to use the trendy “chip shortage” term to generate some interest. Everything I will discuss in this post series is of course fully applicable even in times without a chip shortage. Let’s start with the results of my last poll: The spread of the answers…… Continue reading Chip shortage and FAB performance, part 1
Bottlenecks – download
here is the full bottleneck series as downloadable PDF file: post_bottlenecksDownload
Bottlenecks, final part
Happy New Year ! This will be the last part of the Bottleneck discussion. As mentioned in part 3 – I think the most objective and telling indicator to see what is the true factory bottleneck is: highest average lot wait time at a tool group Wait time or cycle time in general is one…… Continue reading Bottlenecks, final part
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Bottlenecks, part 3
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays ! I hope everybody is having a good time with friends and family and after a lot of good food is ready sit down and discuss more details about factory bottlenecks. In today’s post I will start zooming in on the 3 not grayed out metrics from the poll results…… Continue reading Bottlenecks, part 3
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Bottlenecks, part 2
A big thank you to everyone who voted in my little poll, here are the results: I kind of expected a picture like this – but what does this mean ? Here is my interpretation: Bottlenecks are widely known as the one thing one should work on 1st to improve the overall FAB performance. But…… Continue reading Bottlenecks, part 2
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Bottlenecks, part 1
Almost 15 years ago I had the opportunity to attend a 4 day seminar with the authors of the well known book “Factory Physics” LINK In the opening session we talked about what is limiting factory performance and sure enough bottlenecks came up. The question was asked , what can be done to improve a…… Continue reading Bottlenecks, part 1
Hello
Hello everybody, I finally decided to start my own blog. It will be all about – surprise – Factory Physics and Factory Automation Why am I doing this ? Over the years I had the chance to work very closely in different companies and their semiconductor factories and I found that especially in the non…… Continue reading Hello
Factory Physics and Automation blog 