NGF Group Seeks 300 mm Fab Productivity
David Lammers, News Editor -- Semiconductor International, 9/13/2007
In an effort to place a more intense focus on 300 mm fab productivity improvements, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD, Sunnyvale, Calif.) is hosting ~75 people at its Austin campus today for the second in a series of Next Generation Factory (NGF) meetings.
The AMD-led group is aimed at keeping attention on the considerable gains in productivity yet to be realized in 300 mm fabs, even as other groups seek to gain support for the transition to the 450 mm wafer size. The NGF group first met in July during SEMICON West, and planned a third meeting during SEMICON Japan in early December.
The day-long Austin meeting will include particpants from six integrated device manufacturers — AMD, Freescale Semiconductor, IBM, Qimonda, Renesas Technologies and Spansion — and 16 semiconductor equipment vendors, said Gerald Goff, senior member of AMD’s technical staff. Six academic experts in fab productivity were also expected to attend, Goff said prior to the meeting.
“The suppliers and IDMs used to work more directly together on productivity issues,” Goff said, adding that the NGF group is intended to complement efforts within SEMI and the International Sematech Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI). “ISMI is not moving fast enough. We have to push this 300 mm fab efficiency issue harder as an industry,” Goff said, adding that ISMI project manager Denis Fandel will be among the attendees at today’s event. “In no way do we want the takeaway from this to be that we are against ISMI,” he said, adding, however, that the growing industry emphasis on 450 mm wafers is “concerning to us.”
Goff said that because AMD was “relatively late getting to 300 mm wafers,” it may have more interest in productivity gains at the 300 mm wafer size than its competitor, Intel Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.), which seeks momentum behind the transition to 450 mm wafers in ~2012.
Norma Riley, vice president of fab automation at Asyst Technologies Inc. (Fremont, Calif.), said, “Everyone in the room will have 50 ideas about how to improve productivity, but the problem is what to focus on. Each person sees a different piece of the puzzle. That’s why we need these face-to-face meetings.”
Elizabeth Williamson, IBM’s director of 300 mm manufacturing, said all of the major IDMs talk to their suppliers individually, but added that “it is very hard to get them in one room for intimate discussions. I have to give AMD credit, they made this happen.”
Williamson added, “The 300 mm fabs are not mature. We have a long way to go before we get the revenues out of these fabs that we need to get. The change to 300 mm was a very big shift, and it created problems that still need work.”
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The implication here is that potential yield gain from efficency on 300mm is close to the 100% potential yield gain from doubling the surface of the wafer. The investment for yield gain on 300mm wafers pales in comparison to the $5 billion required for a single 450mm wafer fab. Intellect is more powerful than dollars.
keith beatty - 9/28/2007 11:35:00 PM CDT
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