IIoT & Remote O&M for Semiconductor Manufacturing Webinar, July 19 will Identify 15 Top Purchasers

The semiconductor industry is already benefiting from IIoT and Remote O&M due to many processes involved in chip manufacture. This webinar will focus on the potential relating to the ultrapure water, gases and liquid chemicals used in the processes, air pollution control, water reuse, and movement of granular materials. We invite you to send us relevant data and to join us on the Wednesday, July 19.

The webinar will also identify the projected purchases of IIoT products by the top 15 semiconductor companies. The webinar will briefly address a marketing program to reach these purchasers of more than 50 percent of the IIoT products.

Semiconductor manufacturing processes can be divided into broad categories including silicon wafer manufacturing, creating mask patterns, wafer processing, assembly, and testing including reliability testing. Wafer processing is the core semiconductor manufacturing process centering on lithography and involves repeated stages of washing, heat treatment (oxidation), impurity infusion, film forming, and other steps.

The post-processing phase begins after processing of the wafer and includes assembly and subsequent steps. During this phase the chip is embedded in the package (assembly) and subjected to reliability and other kinds of testing.

As these steps involve a variety of processes including monitoring of temperature during heat treatment in thermal diffusion furnaces and monitoring of burn-in and other reliability tests, they require many recorders and data acquisition instruments. These instruments are also widely used for monitoring of ion currents during ion implantation, monitoring of cleaning solution and water levels in the washing process, and monitoring of temperature, humidity, and static electricity in cleanrooms.

In the case of semiconductor production, manufacturing involves very precise processes in order to create layers of transistors with specific operating characteristics. Chemical and photolithographic steps are used to harden an exact representation onto a silicon wafer. Wafers are then cut into individual chips and electrical contact points are added.

As semiconductor fabrication processes reach 22 and 14 nm, manufacturers are able to pack more chips on a single wafer. Cutting and dicing of the wafer requires precision measuring on the scale of a thousandth of a millimeter. Blades and lasers are used to accomplish this etching and they function in multiple axes of motion and must integrate feedback about positioning at high resolution.

Additionally, delivery of control data between sensors and controllers has to have a latency of less than 100 microseconds. Add to this complexity the reality that cameras and video are increasingly being integrated into manufacturing and they have high bandwidth requirements. Bandwidth limitations at any step in the system create problems and if maintenance and diagnosis is to be handled remotely, connectivity into the lowest layer of a machine must be secure and real-time.

Because of these semiconductor manufacturing challenges, the available capital and the orientation toward IIoT, the semiconductor industry will be an IIoT leader.

GE is promoting the concept of the "Brilliant Factory", which embodies continuous learning and the concept that manufacturing is not a separate activity, rather part of a system. "Automation is more than just robotics," said Christine Furstoss, GE's Global Research VP and technical director of Manufacturing & Materials Technologies. "It's about the creation of closed loop control and managing variants - which is what manufacturing is all about."

The greatest value of the physical/digital convergence in manufacturing occurs when the entire life-cycle of products can be tracked digitally and incorporated in a continuous feedback loop to the production designers and manufacturing engineers.

Schneider Electric recommends that Semiconductor Fabricators who wish to reduce their energy costs and/or carbon footprint, begin with a program that will monitor and measure essential activities.

For most, the process starts with implementing software for HVAC Control, Lighting Control, Energy Monitoring and Building Management Systems, but semiconductor manufacturers should also look to optimize the efficiency of the solutions they deploy for power distribution and protection. For example, Schneider Electric UPS for critical power applications can not only ensure clean power and continuous uptime, but also deliver up to 30 percent energy savings, an important step towards improving reliability while at the same time increasing productivity, profitability and meeting environmental goals and regulations.

This webinar will build on two previous webinars. On April 28 we conducted a cleanroom webinar which you can view at:  https://youtu.be/Xe_NYnLmmAA

Products of ABB, Danaher - One, Dickson, Enviroco, Mahindra, Sensegrow, Terra, Thermofisher, TSI and Vaisala were reviewed.

The Ultrapure Water Webinar can be viewed at https://youtu.be/gRucY_BN47E.

This includes coverage of products by ABB, Danaher-Hach, Endress & Hauser, Envriogen, GE Water, Kurita, and Mettler Toledo.

To register for the webinar or view previous IIoT webinars click on Weekly IIoT Webinars

For more information on IIoT & Remote O&M click on N031 Industrial IOT and Remote O&M

15 Coal-fired Plant Operators will Purchase 50 Percent of the Pumps

Coal-fired plant operators will spend $1.5 billion for pumps each year for the next five years. The top five operators will purchase over 36 percent of the total. The top 15 companies will spend $825 million/yr. This is the latest analysis from the McIlvaine Company in Pumps World Market. The No. 4 purchaser NTPC and the No. 8 purchaser Vietnam Power will be purchasing mostly for new facilities. Those utilities in China and Africa will have a mix of purchases for new and existing facilities whereas the operators in the U.S. and Europe will be spending mostly on repairs and upgrades.

The biggest expenditures will be made for boiler feedwater, cooling, FGD, and wastewater. Chinese operators are investing in zero liquid discharge. This process requires pumps in the stages preliminary to evaporation. Due to the lack of water in arid Chinese areas the plants are selecting dry cooling which does not require pumps. Most new plants use ultra-supercritical technology. This requires more expensive pumps to develop the high pressures.

Power plants are accelerating the IIoT transformation. Remote monitoring and control will be common. Some pump companies are packaging pumps with software to optimize operation. This promises to substantially increase the revenue opportunity.

For more information on Pumps click on:  N019 Pumps World Market

Bob McIlvaine
President
847-784-0012 ext. 112
www.mcilvainecompany.com