Challenge

• Feedstock expense and declining prices drove customer to continuous improvement
• Existing yield was 80% due to breakage and micro-cracks, and was expected worsen given targeted wafer thickness reduction from 180µ to 140µ.
• Wafer flow through the was inconsistent and required occasional manual intervention
• Space for new equipment was limited in the existing clean environment
• A wafer handling solution was needed that was both scalable for future volumes, could be established as a plant-wide standard and that could be easily installed
• Robotic handling was discounted as an option

Solution

• New wafer handling technology developed by Systematix based on the Bernouilli principle for pick, place and conveyance, providing a gentle air bed approach to handling
• The new technology was prototyped and proven at Systematix’ lab, with client input
• Plug and play Bernouilli wafer handling modules were designed. Individual modules could be disengaged from parallel feeding lanes “on-the fly” without process interruption
• Each module had independent PLC control, each independent of the larger process control loop to allow for multiple product SKUs and for scale-up
• Wafer handling yield improved to 95% after installation

Technologies integrated

• Systematix advanced engineering and prototyping
• Proprietary Bernouilli principle designs
• Design for flexibility and scalability
• Design for standardization