How Collaborative Robots Are Enabling Greater Fab Efficiency (Guest Blog)

As impressive as the capabilities of the chips powering our devices and AI services may be, from a technological perspective there's something that's even more incredible: the equipment that manufactures those chips. It can precisely and repeatedly create billions of transistors onto a silicon wafer with angstrom scale. It is an awe-inspiring task.

In fact, it's been argued that today's semiconductor manufacturing equipment represents some of the highest scientific achievements in the technology industry, with physics, advanced chemistry and nanoscopic engineering all coming together. The degree of complexity, sophistication and precision incorporated into these devices is truly mind-boggling.

It should come as no surprise, therefore, to learn that wafer fabrication equipment is also very sensitive and requires regular maintenance, cleaning, and tuning. Ensuring that this manufacturing equipment is running as efficiently and effectively as possible is, in fact, a critical part of the chipmaking process. The maintenance of these machines is also a time-consuming, dangerous, and often tedious task.

In today's chipmaking facilities (fabs), most of that maintenance and cleaning work is performed by highly trained technicians and engineers. As the demand for increasingly sophisticated chips continues to grow thanks to the exponential pace of AI developments, it's getting harder for many fabs to stay on top of the suggested maintenance schedules. Fabs are further challenged by an industry-wide shortage of skilled workers.¹ There have been tremendous advances in the robotic automation of the chip manufacturing process, so logically, it would make sense to apply that to the world of maintenance as well.

That's exactly what Lam Research has done with their new Dextro™ "cobot," a robotic arm-equipped machine on a mobile cart that is specifically designed for the unique maintenance needs of highly advanced semiconductor fabrication equipment. The term cobot refers to a collaborative robot-or more pragmatically-a robot that's specifically designed to work alongside human beings to complete a task (unlike industrial robots that run independently of people). Dextro can perform some of the most challenging and essential maintenance and cleaning tasks on semiconductor manufacturing equipment, including tedious procedures and those that require a human to wear personal protective equipment if performed manually-remember that very potent chemicals are used in the chipmaking process. It also makes the extraordinarily precise adjustments that these machines need and ensures repeatability of accurate maintenance. The accompanying technician is freed up to focus on other less tedious tasks and those that may require complex problem-solving abilities.

Collectively, the pair can operate at a significantly faster speed, thereby performing maintenance on more machines in a shorter period of time. The implications of these seemingly simple improvements are enormous. Accurate, repeatable maintenance reduces waste associated with consumable parts, labor and production downtime.

Given the enormous cost associated with manufacturing semiconductors, the less time machines are offline for routine maintenance, the more time they're making chips. This translates directly into better return on investment (ROI) and higher output levels per machine. In addition, thanks to the additional precision that Dextro brings to the process, the time between maintenance intervals can potentially be increased, further improving the yields generated by each machine.

Right now, Dextro works on select Lam dielectric etch tools and performs some of the most critical maintenance tasks. Over time, however, Lam Research expects to develop other cobots to work with other Lam manufacturing equipment and extend the number of capabilities each cobot can perform.

In the meantime, early deployments of Dextro are proving to be very successful. Large fabs that are using both Lam Research's manufacturing equipment and their Dextro cobots are reporting noticeable improvements in output, consistency, and run time on that equipment.

The world of semiconductor manufacturing is full of incredibly impressive technologies that highlight the amazing ingenuity of the people who design and create these systems. Even in this complex world, however, sometimes it's the seemingly simplest of ideas and tasks that can have some of the biggest impact. Using robotics to automate the process of maintaining other robotic manufacturing machines is clearly one of those cases that seems rather obvious after the fact. However, it's not something that most companies have thought of, as Lam Research is the first to bring this extraordinarily useful maintenance capability to market.

What it does demonstrate, though, is that having a clear long-term vision and executing on that vision can take organizations down paths that they might not have first considered. And it's these unexpected and unexplored routes that can lead to some of the most interesting and impactful innovations.

¹ "The Global Semiconductor Talent Shortage," Deloitte, 2022.

Bob O'Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, LLC, a market research firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community. You can follow him on www.x.com @bobodtech.

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This article contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include any statements that are not statements of historical fact, including statements regarding industry demand trends and expectations, future technological requirements, the performance of Lam products, and Lam's research and development efforts and priorities. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed, including the risks and uncertainties described in Lam's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including specifically the Risk Factors described in Lam's annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. This article was authored by a third party and Lam is not responsible for the statements made herein. Lam undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.