Substrate Management System

Semicon Japan: The company offers the SMS substrate management system—the first in a new family of smaller, high productivity 200 mm wafer sorters used in semiconductor manufacturing. These management platforms are used primarily by semiconductor device manufacturers to manipulate and identify wafers during the manufacturing process.

The SMS has been designed for high throughput in a small footprint and is capable of handling 200 mm wafers in SMIF or open cassette environments. The system performs a range of operations including product identification, transfers, sorting, merging, orientation, verification and randomization, effectively becoming a single point of wafer manipulation and providing total manufacturing control.

Because the SMS is a fully-automated platform it ensures that wafers remain in a class 0.1 environment during all fab process steps. This "hands-off" approach helps manufacturers enhance yield by reducing handling-induced scratches and contamination. The SMS system also protects against misprocessing by performing a final verification of production lot integrity.

The components include company mini-environment and isolation technology, company robotics for wafer handling, the company's VersaPort SMIF front-end and company graphical user interface software. The components are all modules designed and manufactured by the company, providing a compatible, cost-effective solution that can quickly and easily be configured to suit customer needs. Although the SMS system will replace the company's WMS wafer management platforms, the company will continue to support existing customer requirements.

Asyst Technologies, Inc., 48761 Kato Rd., Fremont, CA 94538. Tel: 510-661-5000. Fax: 510-661-5166.