Bob Scarborough 1/8/2015

Manufacturing in the Semiconductor Industrytensoft.com/manufacturing-semiconductor-industry/

Semiconductor manufacturing stands apart as a unique process when you compare it to other manufacturingprocesses. From a systems perspective, production in most manufacturing industries is either discrete or processmanufacturing – semiconductor manufacturing can be defined as process manufacturing with a discrete outcome allthe while focused on lot genealogy. Here’s what I mean by that.

Semiconductor manufacturing processes are like discrete manufacturing in that they follow a set of steps that endwith a single result. For other industries, these steps can produce sub-assemblies that come together to make aproduct However, in semiconductor manufacturing, this process can have multiple outcomes at various stages ofproduction.

The semiconductor production process is also like process manufacturing, since the output of one step is assumedas the input of the next step, and the primary goal is to add value to the primary input. For example the output of afabbed wafer is tested and possibly graded, resulting in many outcomes. This is a “one-to-many” process whichmeans that the Bill of Materials (BOM) is inverted, compared to a discrete manufacturing BOM.

To illustrate, here’s an example of process manufacturing in the semiconductor industry:

It starts with the wafer fabrication process. Your company may provide the raw wafer or you may have your foundryprovide it. The fabrication process then uses a wafer mask (mask set) and a multi-step process to create multipleindividual die on the wafer.

After the wafer fab process is completed, the wafer can be put into inventory (wafer bank) or it can be moved into awafer test process – commonly referred to as a sort or probe process. This testing process may simply mark die asgood or bad, or it may categorize products more finely by bins (performance grading). These performance grades –

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and the overall yield for each wafer – drive multiple outputs from a single input process step.

When the wafer sorting process completes, the sorted die are often stored in a die bank – an inventory point ofunassembled raw product. Often this is a build to forecast point for semiconductor companies – the place wherethey hold product pending specific customer demand for finished goods.

To complete a finished product the raw die would be moved through an assembly process (often more than oneoption per die) that puts the die into a package, moves the assembled die into a test process (where binning mayoccur again, and yield is tracked), and finally into some type of pack process for distribution (options include tube,tray, or tape and reel packaging). Again we have multiple outcomes from single step processes, and multiple pathsfor products to take. Programmability (and sometimes re-programmability), unique product marking (or remarking)for specific end users, downgrading, and rework (moving backwards in the production process to create a differentproduct) all combine specific unique requirements for process and discrete manufacturing. Even after manufacturinga chip may be combined with other chips to produce a multi-chip IC or added to a module as a raw material in anentirely new assembly. Semiconductor manufacturing companies may require support for module production post ICmanufacturing through contract manufacturing and outsourced fulfillment.

So, why is this a problem? Because business software solutions are typically designed to handle either discretemanufacturing or process manufacturing. In order to handle the needs of their unique industry, companies mayresort to an ERP system with supply chain management (SCM) and manufacturing execution (MES) systemslayered on top, and supplemented by various homegrown and/or manual systems. This can be expensive tomaintain, difficult to integrate effectively, and ultimately ineffective.

Tensoft FSM supports the unique manufacturing, supply chain management, and financial accounting needs of thesemiconductor business, without all the mess. There is no need to customize the system or work around it – it’s anindustry-specific solution right from the start. It’s designed to handle the semiconductor industry’s inverted BOM(one-to-many production), yield (and cycle time and cost) management at every step of the production process,deep genealogy and product attribute tracking, and the ability to manage internal and external manufacturingexecution.

If you’re interested in learning more about Tensoft FSM, please visit our product pages or contact us directly. We’dbe happy to answer any questions!

By Bob Scarborough, CEO, Tensoft

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