ISMI News

ISMI Unveils Details on Wafer Transition Program, Welcomes Supplier Response

Austin, TX (27 September 2006) – Informed by extensive engineering and business feedback, the International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI) has laid out the initial scope of its 300 mm Prime (300 Prime) effort—an evolutionary approach to the next wafer size—while continuing to encourage new input from equipment suppliers.

300 Prime is a strategy for improving 300 mm manufacturing productivity, with forward compatibility of design and architecture to 450 mm manufacturing. This strategy draws on lessons learned from previous technology conversions and recognizes the importance of collaboration, consensus-building, and compromise among chip-makers and equipment suppliers.

The ISMI program, launched in January and subsequently involving discussions not only between ISMI member companies but with the industry at large, now offers some specific examples of how 300 Prime might be introduced in ways that encompass different levels of risk and investment. These levels (detailed below) include actions that could benefit 300 mm productivity in existing and future fabs.

However, Program Manager Tom Abell acknowledges that 300 Prime remains a work in progress and actively encourages tool suppliers to become early contributors of ideas, skills and viewpoints through a set of advisory panels and discussions with ISMI.

“We want to guide this wafer transition the right way, by making sure the doors are open to all industry stakeholders,” Abell said. “The work we do this year will help us assess the capabilities of 300 Prime for bringing productivity improvements to existing and future 300 mm fabs, along with its role as a pathway to 450 mm wafers.”

Initial efforts have allowed ISMI to formulate real-world applications of 300 Prime in current fabs, with varying degrees of risk. For example, a small risk implementation might involve updating process tools with recipe and parameter management (RaP), a single wafer tool may replace a batch system for moderate risk, or implementation of a new high-speed factory-wide automated delivery system would represent higher risk.

Other examples, in degrees of risk, include:

  • Advanced lot dispatch and scheduling (low), local lot storage (moderate), automated reticle delivery system (higher)
  • Minimizing first wafer delays (low), optimizing tools for high-mix operations (moderate), accommodating variable lot sizes throughout the factory (higher)

“We’re working with the stakeholders to design 300 Prime as a spectrum of practical options leading to the cost-effective introduction of larger wafers,” Abell said.  “We’ve learned that our approach must be as diverse and flexible as the industry itself, while also allowing suppliers to receive incremental revenues as new tools, standards, and practices are introduced.”

Abell characterized 300 Prime as an evolutionary process scalable to 450 mm manufacturing, with timing dependent upon the possibilities that 300 Prime may hold.

“Our view is that 300 Prime/450 mm transition should comprise a staged set of solutions that can be fine-tuned to a chip-maker’s particular business model,” he said.

A clear understanding of the scope of 300 Prime will enable the industry to make technology decisions to improve current productivity while ensuring a sound pathway for a future transition to larger wafers, Abell noted. These decisions range from issues on wafer thickness and carrier size to batch size, factory dimensions, wafer transport mechanisms, and standards for process control data.

To address these issues, ISMI has joined with SEMI to establish two engineering groups to collaboratively engage suppliers and chip-makers: the Manufacturing Technology Forum (MTF) and the Joint Productivity Working Group (JPWG). Inputs from both groups will help ISMI develop a 300 Prime capability assessment—with details on potential benefits and cost reductions—through 2006 and beyond.

“The more supplier involvement we have in these groups, the better our assessment will be,” said Abell, who serves as a contact for both panels. He added that for the remainder of the year, ISMI will seek additional supplier views at key industry meetings around the globe, including:

  • The ISMI Technical Workshop on Sept. 28 in Tokyo, taking place at the end of the 2006 International Symposium on Semiconductor Manufacturing (ISSM)
  • A seminal Technical Briefing on 300 Prime and 450 mm during the ISMI Symposium on Manufacturing Effectiveness, Oct. 9-11 in Austin
  • A review of 2006 results and 2007 plans for 300 Prime and 450 mm during SEMICON Japan, in Chiba Dec. 6-8

“There are still more questions than answers about the next wafer-size transition, and we’ll need the best minds in our industry to explore it thoroughly,” Abell said. “ISMI values the diversity of opinions on this transition.”