Robotic Collaboration Launched for Maintenance in Chip Production

Lam Research, the $100 billion company that produces semiconductor-manufacturing equipment, introduced what it called the industry’s first collaborative robot, or cobot, made to handle maintenance on wafer-fabrication equipment.

The cobot, appropriately named Dextro, is able to perform accurate, high-precision maintenance work on Lam’s equipment, which is deployed in semiconductor fabrication plants, or fabs, around the world. 

As fabs continue to grow, geographic range and equipment complexity to keep up with the AI boom, Dextro’s role in the chip-manufacturing process is critical, Lam said, noting that the number of positions in the semiconductor industry outpaces the current pool of skilled engineers.

"With the enormous increase in demand that AI is bringing to the semiconductor market, it's critical for chipmakers to keep all their manufacturing equipment working as efficiently as possible to minimize downtime," said Bob O'Donnell, president of Technalysis Research. "Dextro can automate tedious, time-consuming and often intricate cleaning and maintenance tasks on chip-fabrication equipment so that manufacturing output can be maximized. It offers a huge benefit for companies that choose to deploy it."

Dextro is a mobile unit with a robotic arm operated by a fab technician or engineer. It can be equipped with various end-effectors as hands to handle critical, time-consuming maintenance work that is prone to human error. 

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For example, it precisely installs and compresses consumable components with more than two times the accuracy of manual application. It also tightens vacuum-sealing, high-precision bolts to exact specifications, relieving fab engineers of a repetitive task that has up to a 5% error rate when done manually. 

Using automation and cleaning technology, Dextro removes side-wall polymer build-up within the chip-manufacturing chamber without the need for disassembly.

"When manufacturing equipment requires maintenance, the work must be done quickly and efficiently to avoid extended tool downtime and wasted cost," said Young Ju Kim, vice president and head of the Memory Etch Technology Team at Samsung Electronics. "Error-free maintenance by Dextro helps drive improvements in production variability and yield."

"Dextro is an exciting leap forward in semiconductor-manufacturing-equipment maintenance,” said Chris Carter, group vice president of Lam’s Customer Support Business Group. “Built to work side-by-side with fab engineers, it executes complex maintenance tasks with precision and repeatability that are beyond human capability alone, enabling higher tool uptime and manufacturing yield."

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