Semiconductor Machinery
For semiconductor equipment manufacturers developing new 300mm tooling, development costs and time to market have never been more critical to survival. To remain competitive, leading manufacturers have significantly shortened their equipment development time through means such as utilizing common platforms for multiple system configurations and moving to modular designs. By making use of common modular platforms for multiple machine designs, significant design effort has now been removed as new process capability is added or modified and new products are released.
Etch system Photo courtesy of Lam Research Corporation
In the design of the latest 300mm tooling equipment, the Han-Modular® solution has been “designed in” by many of the world’s leading manufacturers as a means to carry power and signal as well as pneumatic controls on their most advanced machines. By choosing the Han-Modular solution, manufacturers are now able to combine power, co-axial, fiber optic and pneumatic connections in one connector.
In addition to combining multiple connector configurations, Han- Modular offers manufacturers the following additional benefits:
- True modular construction of machine components: the mainframe and wafer chambers can be built in separate locations, then brought to one final location and “plugged together” for final assembly and testing.
- The final testing phase of the machine is shortened because all connections using the Han-Modular solution can be pre-tested before the machine is broken down and shipped to the final end user.
- Any complex situations arising from hardwiring are eliminated.
- Cost savings are realized due to the elimination of the need for multiple connectors and the reduction in space required for the connections.