Automation Software

As competition intensifies in the semiconductor industry, chip makers are adopting Industry 4.0 manufacturing techniques to achieve higher levels of operational excellence.

Given the inherently complex nature of semiconductor manufacturing, chip makers are increasingly using automated software systems to make fabs more intelligent and responsive, with the ultimate goal of improving productivity and yield.

Innovations in software automation increase manufacturing flexibility, efficiency and quality to meet customer requirements for complex packaging designs.

Reducing human variability improves problem solving and brings new levels of efficiency and quality to the fab.

For the 5th consecutive year, Applied Materials has been recognized with Intel Corporation’s Preferred Quality Supplier award.

More than 2.5 million terabytes of “Big Data” is created every day – a truly astronomical sum. The challenge is how to extract strategic insight and actionable information from these mountains of data. Semiconductor Manufacturing and Design magazine recently examined Big Data in microchip fabrication. The article includes perspectives from leading chipmakers and discusses Applied’s remarkable data-mining technology as a solution.

Once upon a time, microchips were (relatively) simple and so was servicing the machines used to make them: if a machine stopped working, you called a technician. We call this break/fix model Service 1.0.As chips became more sophisticated, instead of just repairing the equipment, Service 2.0 aimed to make it faster and more efficient.Today, chips are almost unimaginably complex and we’re on the brink of Service 3.0, where virtually everything in the fab is monitored to identify subtle shifts that could affect chip performance.Recently, Dan Hutcheson, CEO of VLSIresearch, explored the evolving nature of service with Charlie Pappis, group vice president and general manager of Applied Global Services.

It gives me great pleasure to share that Applied Materials has once again been named to the InformationWeek 500 list of business technology innovators for delivering a customized, highly searchable knowledge management portal for Applied field service engineers.The prestigious list is published annually by InformationWeek and this year’s list spotlights how mobile devices, cloud computing and big data analytics are changing the landscape for IT organizations. Not only is the IT organization now responsible for just tech support–it is also a strategic partner embedded into business products and services.The Applied Rapid Knowledge (ARK) portal was recognized for increasing work efficiency and stream-lining product-related document searches, enabling field service engineers to better support customer equipment.

Growth in LED demand—driven by broad adoption of general lighting applications—is expected to come at a fast, furious and sustained pace which analysts predict may last for a few years before the market once again pauses.The way I see it, the current lull in LED market growth actually may be a great opportunity for LED manufacturers: Those who invest in productivity improvements now, while there is still the luxury of time, could potentially benefit significantly and outpace their competitors during the next high growth cycles.