New innovation centres for 300mm technology

Published: 11-May-2004


AMD has opened two Automated Precision Manufacturing (APM) Innovation Centres in Austin, Texas, and Dresden, Germany. APM is AMD's patented suite of more than 250 leading-edge fab automation and optimisation technologies used to reduce time-to-yield on new technologies and decrease manufacturing costs. The new centres will be used by AMD manufacturing technologists and software designers to integrate version 3.0 of APM into AMD Fab 36 (see main story). "This early APM integration effort will allow us to rapidly and efficiently bring fully automated processes online in AMD Fab 36, and will help keep us on schedule," said Gary Heerssen, group vice president, Corporate Manufacturing Group, AMD. "The work done in these Innovation Centres is planned to extend and improve these capabilities to further enhance the strong cost benefits of 300mm production," Heerssen added. In AMD Fab 30, APM 2.0 forms an integrated fabric of communication and control linkages with the hundreds of tools in the fab. This sophisticated and integrated manufacturing infrastructure monitors the health of microprocessors in production by collecting and analysing data from the tool sets as wafers enter and exit for processing. Tom Sonderman, Director of APC Technology for AMD claims "We have the best staff working with the best equipment. It's like Michael Schumacher driving a Ferrari - you get ultimate performance."

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