The Paradigm Shift for Manufacturing Execution Systems in European Projects and SEMI Activities

According to SEMATECH the industry has the goal to reduce the cost per chip function from 25% to 30% each year. This is necessary to remain competitive within this highly aggressive market. Reducing feature sizes, increasing wafer sizes, maximization of yields and improving equipment productivity all contribute to this goal. Shorter time-to-market, higher scheduling stability, higher number of products and product developments, and of course minimized costs together with top quality are essential. A successful semiconductor manufacturer has to accomodate to a lot of these complex, sometimes opposed and contradictory, requirements to fulfil the customer demands as well as to ensure their own profitability. Thus the optimisation of the wafer fab performance while enabling a highly flexible manufacturing strategy will play a major role.