Lam Research, a US-based supplier of wafer fabrication equipment and services to the semiconductor industry, has launched Dextro.
Dextro is the semiconductor industry's first collaborative robot (cobot) designed to optimise critical maintenance tasks on wafer fabrication equipment.
Young Ju Kim, VP and Head of the Memory Etch Technology Team at Samsung Electronics, said: “ When manufacturing equipment requires maintenance, the work must be done quickly and efficiently to avoid extended tool downtime and wasted cost. Error-free maintenance by Dextro helps drive improvements in production variability and yield."
Now deployed in multiple advanced wafer fabs around the world, Dextro enables accurate, high-precision maintenance to minimise tool downtime and production variability.
Dextro is the semiconductor industry's first collaborative robot
Dextro also drives significant first-time-right (FTR) results that can enhance yield.
Today's wafer fabrication equipment utilises advanced physics, robotics and chemistry to create semiconductors at nanoscale.
A typical fab has hundreds of process tools that each require regular, complex maintenance.
Dextro is designed to improve the cost-effectiveness of this equipment by performing critical maintenance tasks with repeatability and sub-micron precision.
A typical fab has hundreds of process tools that each require regular, complex maintenance
Chris Carter, Group VP of the Customer Support Business Group at Lam Research, said: “Dextro is an exciting leap forward in semiconductor manufacturing equipment maintenance. Built to work side-by-side with fab engineers, it executes complex maintenance tasks with precision and repeatability that are beyond human capability alone, enabling higher tool uptime and manufacturing yield.
“It is a powerful addition to Lam's extensive portfolio of tools and services designed to help chipmakers optimise their fabs for cost and productivity."
As fabs continue to grow in size, geographic diversity, and equipment complexity, chipmakers need to optimise the effectiveness of their fab engineers by increasing automation and adding efficiencies.
This is becoming even more important as the number of semiconductor positions worldwide continues to outpace the availability of skilled engineers.
Precision is crucial in tool maintenance, where the accurate reassembly of subsystems translates to the bottom line. Achieving FTR saves time and cost.
Repeatable maintenance also reduces waste associated with consumable parts, labour, and production downtime, leading to less variability and higher yield in production.
Dextro
Dextro is a mobile unit with a robotic arm operated by a fab technician or engineer.
It uses various end-effectors as hands to manage critical equipment maintenance tasks that are time-consuming and prone to errors when done manually.
For example, it precisely installs and compresses consumable components with more than two times the accuracy of manual application.
Precise assembly helps control etch performance at the wafer edge, improving yield.
Dextro is a mobile unit with a robotic arm operated by a fab technician or engineer
Dextro tightens vacuum-sealing, high-precision bolts to exact specifications, relieving fab engineers of a repetitive task that has up to a 5% error rate when done manually.
Accurately meeting specifications eliminates chamber temperature deviations that may take a tool out of production and impact die yield.
Using automation and cleaning technology, Dextro removes side-wall polymer build-up within the chamber, without the burden of disassembly of the lower chamber. Importantly, it does this at lower risk to humans who require heavy protective breathing equipment to perform the task manually.
Lam Research’s Flex (trademarked) G and H series dielectric etch tools are currently supported by Dextro, expanding to additional tools in 2025 and beyond.
Top image: Lam Research's Dextro