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Revasum Increases Throughput by 20%+ Using PEER Tool Orchestrator
Measuring 9.5 on the Mohs hardness scale, silicon carbide (SiC) requires a sophisticated, purpose-built piece of machinery to prepare it for use as a semiconductor wafer. Specifically engineered to tackle the complex challenges of processing SiC wafers, the Revasum™ 6EZ is an advanced, fully automated polisher that excels in achieving the precise, angstrom-scale levels of wafer smoothness required for high yield semiconductor manufacturing.
Powering the automation and wafer handling of the 6EZ is PEER Group’s PEER® Tool Orchestrator (PTO®). Revasum first used PTO in 2014 when they deployed it on their 7AF-HMG Grinder tool. “The experience was extremely positive,” says Bill Kalenian, VP of Engineering at Revasum. “We were well supported through the entire process of putting PTO on our tool and we’ve been using it ever since.”
For the 6EZ, Revasum engaged PEER Group® OEM Services for the initial system design. “A PEER Group senior software developer came to our facility and reviewed the tool to understand what we were trying to do,” says Bill Nagel, Revasum’s Senior Director of Software and Controls, while adding: “We outlined a series of constraints and what we wanted from the workflow and then PEER Group wrote the underlying code to make it happen.”
Once the system design was complete, the PTO software was released to the Revasum team and deployed onto the 6EZ. Factory-ready, the 6EZ was sold and integrated into customer sites around the globe. As time passed and customers’ SiC polishing requirements changed, the Revasum team noticed moments of idle time while the tool was operating.
“We originally programmed the tool to do things very methodically,” says Kalenian. “Our first goal was always to maintain the integrity of our process results. Once we hit a point in the life cycle of the machine, we started looking at ways to improve throughput.”
“Our team used both visual cues by watching the machine and PTO’s logging infrastructure to discover where those idle periods existed,” says Nagel. “Based on that information, we decided where we could make wafer handling enhancements. We then used the simulation capabilities of PTO to test and validate those changes.”
“Being able to simulate the tool in the PTO framework was instrumental in developing the enhancements,” continues Nagel. “The iterative cycle of coding development really lends itself towards simulation because when you’re dealing with actual hardware, it’s a much slower process. The fact that we could accelerate development using PTO was very useful.”
Once the software changes were made, Nagel’s team again used PTO’s logging to quantify the enhancements.
The result was an outstanding 20%+ increase in wafer throughput.
“I knew we could make improvements, but I was surprised with how much we actually made,” shares Kalenian. Equally surprised, Nagel pored over the results to make sure the calculations were correct, while admitting: “I didn’t anticipate more than a 5-10% gain.”
PEER Group and their SDK is the best third-party toolkit I’ve ever worked with.
Bill Nagel, Senior Director of Software and Controls, Revasum
Revasum deployed the improvements to its 6EZ customer base as part of its SW 3.1 software upgrade. Requiring no hardware changes, Revasum’s customers benefited immediately from the increased throughput and reduced cost of ownership per wafer.
An experienced software development leader, Nagel has been pleased with how the partnership with PEER Group has progressed over the years. “I’ve been doing software development for 20 years and I’ve worked with a lot of third-party vendors and SDKs and by far, PEER Group and their SDK is the best third-party toolkit I’ve ever worked with. It’s the quality of the software, the quality and responsiveness of the support, the professionalism, and just the friendly attitude I get when I talk to somebody on the phone.”
“Revasum is the ideal PTO SDK partner,” says Mike Barrett, Director, Global OEM Sales at PEER Group. “PTO is a flexible and powerful platform that empowers our customers to leverage their own expertise and domain knowledge to innovate and improve their tool. What Revasum achieved with the 6EZ is a testament to not only the high performance of their hardware, but the talent that exists on their development team. I look forward to seeing what further optimizations and throughput gains they’re able to make.”
According to Kalenian, it may not be long before additional enhancements are released, sharing: “We’re working on more improvements now.”
To learn more about Revasum, visit: www.revasum.com
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