The Changing Role of Equipment and Materials Suppliers
Peter Singer, Editorin-Chief -- Semiconductor International, 10/1/1999
In the not too distant past, equipment suppliers often were viewed by their customers as little more than 'plumbers.' It was their job to hook up vacuum pumps, mass flow controllers and other components to a chamber, and devise some way to get wafers in and out. What actually went on inside the chamber was definitely none of their business. How things have changed! Today, the burden of process development lies squarely on the shoulders of equipment and materials suppliers. Not only are they expected to deliver guaranteed, turnkey process solutions; they are being asked to address a whole new range of emerging technologies. As defined in the National Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, these include a move to 300 mm wafers, copper, and low- and high-k dielectrics, all while dimensions continue to shrink to unprecedented levels.
If that's not enough, chip makers appear to be dictating how much they are willing to pay for leading-edge equipment. In the world of 300 mm, for example, a stated goal is that 300 mm equipment cost only 1.3X the cost of 'comparable' 200 mm equipment. This is despite the fact, of course, that 300 mm was supposed to have been put into production by now, allowing suppliers to recoup at least some of the millions they have spent on 300 mm R&D. Now it's questionable whether the equipment that has been developed over the last few years will even still be viable when 300 mm does go into production.
Add in a severe two-year downturn (now delightfully over) and top it all off with a sprinkling of cost-of-ownership demands and you have the recipe for a revolution. Storm Intel's gates! Burn the Roadmaps!
Fortunately, just the opposite seems to be happening. Equipment and materials suppliers have embraced the challenge and are continuing to introduce a flood of advanced new products. What's even more impressive is that they have not stopped there, but have gone on to take service and support to an entirely new level. This is exemplified by several new, multimillion-dollar process integration centers, such as a $30 million low-k integration facility built by AlliedSignal/Johnson Matthey (soon to be Honeywell) and Applied Materials' huge copper integration lab, called EPIC. For the first time, equipment suppliers actually are ahead of their customers in developing process strategies. This not only allows customers to 'try before they buy;' it also enables many of the bugs to be worked out before a process is put into production. At Applied's EPIC center, for example, researchers quickly discovered that available resistance-measurement tools were not going to work for copper applications. They then worked with a tool supplier to develop a new product for that application -- a product that is now available to any fab. Previously, chip makers would have been the ones to go through this long process.
Equipment makers also are trying to streamline other aspects of service and support, including inventory management. A good example of a new innovation in this area is Eaton's SMART Web-based tracker, through which Eaton maintains a customized consumable parts inventory at a customer's facility, ensuring that critical supplies are available at all times. Customers can monitor and track consumables usage on-line through a secure, easy-to-use Web site.
In the end, economics will dictate where the industry is
headed and how much of what is set forth in the Roadmap can be achieved (and at
what cost). In the meantime, it's a healthy sign that suppliers have not only
responded to the challenges thrown at them, but have gone a step further to
implement new strategies designed to help streamline their customers'
businesses.
