NOWTrak® system: Using inventive expertise and customer input to better manage critical materials
Chemical management today faces a number of challenges: the rising costs and growing numbers of critical materials, costly human errors in tracking and using materials correctly, and the time and effort required to gather and integrate key data on materials sourced from a range of suppliers. Add in the relentless pressure to reduce operating costs, and the result is a strong demand for a more effective, extensive tracking solution. ATMI leveraged its strategic position between chemical suppliers and chip manufacturers to develop the NOWTrak® system, which embeds RFID (radio frequency identification) components into the company's NOWPak® packages and dispense probes. This fully automated system makes it easier for fab process and tool engineers to ensure the right material gets connected to the right place before expiration, to keep track of costly inventory with less overall effort, and collect and manage materials data for use in enabling better long-term performance and higher yield all with less labor and lower risk of error. The NOWTrak system is gathering momentum with an expanding base of installations and several promising next-generation capabilities under development.
The Problem: Increasing Complexity, High Risk of Costly Errors, and a Growing Need for Cost-Effective Operations
The management of critical chemicals and materials used in semiconductor manufacture has historically been complicated, and the penalty for mistakes and waste gets higher every year. Because advanced process technologies are increasing the number, type, and cost of key materials, there is a growing need to optimize the flow of this material from origin to point of use. In particular, fabs need to reduce the amount (and corresponding investment) of idle materials in the inventory pipeline and to respond more quickly to demand signals for specific materials.
Once a costly material is on-site, close monitoring is required to assure it does not expire on-shelf or on-tool. Connecting the wrong chemistry to a dispense point can result in downtime to decontaminate probes and the disposal of expensive process chemistries. Worse yet, dispensing an incorrect material onto wafers carries an even higher cost of product scrap or rework, and the corresponding downtime for tool decontamination.
All of these activities can absorb significant amounts of time from process engineers, manufacturing technicians, and operators, and carry a high corresponding risk of error. ATMI had already delivered several packaging solutions that provided significant manufacturing cost efficiencies through better material control and usage. However, comprehensive inventory management and control remained an unmet need or one only partially addressed by the implementation of manual bar code systems.
"I know of one fab where they lost track of a shipment inside the warehouse. Workers found the materials only after they had expired," said Chris Bayes-Wallace, an applications engineer for ATMI. "One incident like that, saved, would pay for NOWTrak many times over."
ATMI talked with many customers, large and small, about their specific needs. With this feedback, the company crafted an entirely new approach to automating critical material management. This was made possible because of ATMI's unique position between chemical suppliers and end users, and its understanding of the needs and concerns of both. The result is that ATMI has been able to build upon its successful NOWPak platform to deliver a comprehensive RFID-based solution that moves well beyond the limited data and error-prone practice of bar coding.
The Solution: Automated tracking, fewer errors, and more detailed data about materials in use
From the start, ATMI technologists recognized that the kind of detailed information, visibility, and control their customers needed would require the ability to track each individual NOWPak container from its arrival in their inventory to its connection on their process tools. They realized that by combining RFID technology with ATMI's existing NOWPak solution, they would be able to build exactly this kind of seamless infrastructure for their customers.
However, traditional RFID solutions are designed to focus on batches of material moving through a static inventory location, or gateway. The solution ATMI sought had to track material movement down to the individual container, and to also read and update information about each specific material container. This required a one-to-one capability not available with standard RFID solutions. Thus, ATMI designed a new RFID platform on which the NOWTrak system is based.
By embedding an RFID chip inside each NOWPak Intellicap, the NOWTrak system allows each individual container to be tracked. The data collected is not static; its time-sensitive nature means that not only can thawing and expiration periods be closely monitored, but an operator is able to get a snapshot of the entire inventory at any given moment. This encompasses not just materials in storage, but also those connected to process tools on the factory floor. This gathering of information is highly automated to reduce the chance of human error along the way, whether preventing an incorrect material from being connected on equipment or allowing an expensive material to expire before it is used.
But the NOWTrak system does more than just protect against error. The wealth of information that it collects gives fabricators new depth of insight into the relationship between materials and production. For example, specific lots of chemicals can be correlated with production levels or failures, allowing a company to quickly discover if a specific problem can be traced to an individual stock of materials-the kind of knowledge that can boost both efficiency and cost-savings.
The Result: A materials tracking system that saves time, money, and materials
The NOWTrak system is gathering momentum, with strong interest from IC manufacturers who recognize the potential value of increasing the automation of their critical material management. Chemical suppliers are also seeing the system's potential in one notable example, ATMI is partnering with an industry-leading material supplier to automate the process of transferring critical product data onto the NOWTrak RFID tags, making it easier for them to incorporate NOWTrak technology into their manufacturing process and becoming part of the overall NOWTrak solution network.
"We took ubiquitous RFID technology one step further to develop a unique solution for our customers' critical fab material management needs," said Bill Smeaton, senior project engineer in ATMI's packaging division. "As manufacturing complexity and costs increase, the need for operational efficiencies is driving a trend toward higher levels of in-fab material control automation.
"For a growing number of end users, The NOWTrak system is well-positioned to meet that need."
The NOWTrak system's technology roadmap promises several developments that will further enhance operational efficiency. Based on strong market feedback, ATMI has developed the new Generation 2 distributed control design, which simplifies installation and startup and creates an easily embedded architecture. This has allowed ATMI to engage with key OEM suppliers to "design in" The NOWTrak system as a factory-delivered option.
The NOWTrak network will allow NOWTrak system process tool modules to communicate with inventory modules to further automate the tracking, transfer, and control of critical materials within the fab. These current and new benefits have made the NOWTrak system yet another example of ATMI's vision and ingenuity in meeting the needs of the semiconductor industry.
