Company Profile Industry: Semiconductor Application: Fabrication Equipment and Silicon Wafers Challenge:Semiconductor fabrication equipment and the silicon wafers they produce are extremely sensitive to impact and tilt. ShockWatch RFID Tags Protect Sensitive Semiconductor Equipment and Wafers from Damage in Transit Semiconductor fabrication equipment and the silicon wafers they produce are extremely sensitive to impact and tilt. To protect them during transport, many of the world’s largest manufacturers are beginning to use ShockWatch® RFID passive tags to monitor shipments and identify potentially damaging impacts. RFID can make a noticeable improvement in terms of reducing damage rates for delicate wafers and the equipment that makes them. Given the current, global, shortage of semiconductor chips and growing global needs, taking extra steps to reduce damage is a logical precaution to protect your business. It is a sound investment, too. SpotSee® partners report shipping damage was reduced an average of 50% when its highly visible impact monitoring tags were placed on their shipments. That’s because cargo handlers are more careful when they know someone is tracking the condition of the assets. The semiconductor industry is faced by a two-fold challenge. Impacts, like being hit by shifting cargo during delivery, can fracture wafers. Stronger impacts, like being bumped by a forklift or dropped while loading, can damage fabrication equipment’s’ internal components. When wafers break, they can be recycled. In fact, 85% of them are returned to their manufacturer and melted down to make new wafers. But that requires a reverse logistics program and exacts costs for the actual shipping and – especially during shortages – causes delays for chip manufacturers and their customers.

When fabrication machinery is damaged, it may not be obvious. Hidden damage can lead to hard-to-pinpoint problems later. Damage to scanners for photolithography or to etching equipment, for example, could cause circuits to be laid down in the wrong areas, making the chips worthless and ultimately triggering massive recalls. All the equipment in the fab – as the fabrication facility is called – is extremely precise. Costs for individual items are said to start at about $700,000 with some items (notably EUV scanners) costing $130 million.

The Uptime Institute’s survey indicated 40% of outages cost their organizations between $100,000 and $1 million. As the survey showed, those costs are rising.

Gartner, a leading IT consultancy, noted two main areas of loss: Transactions that could be lost to time or competitors, and deleterious effects upon stakeholders. Unplanned downtime, therefore, gives customers a reason to chose another data center or cloud host.

ShockWatch RFID tags turn red when they experienced unsafe impacts, so logistics professionals can spot items that should be inspected at a glance as well as receive an electronic indication. An easy way to do this is simply to affix ShockWatch RFID tags on the cartons being shipped, and then to install passive RFID readers at your facility’s loading bay doors and other chokepoints.

When RFID applications are linked to your inventory or equipment management system, condition reports are entered automatically when the equipment or wafers are received, and when they pass subsequent scanners as they move deeper into your facility. Importantly, today’s RFID technology doesn’t require line-of-sight to be read, and readers can read hundreds of tags in a few seconds.

SpotSee’s combination of impact monitoring and RFID is a bonus for manufacturers. Not only can cargo handlers and warehouse workers see at a glance which semiconductors or fabrication equipment has experienced potentially damaging impacts exceeding pre-specified thresholds (between 5Gs and 75Gs), but that information can be automatically entered to inventory management systems whenever the tags near a passive RFID reader.

Royal Philips Electronics became the first major semiconductor fabricator to deploy RFID tags throughout its semiconductor division in Asia in 2005. Since then, others have started adopting this technology to gain visibility into their supply chains and their own manufacturing environment. Now, RFID is making inroads throughout the supply chain, too, providing greater visibility into the condition of sensitive items throughout their transit.

Preventing damage and learning about damage to your equipment and materials early, before they are in the production line, are part of a comprehensive loss reduction plan that can help you avoid delays that could damage your reputation and drive customers to competitors. Using visible monitors, like SpotSee’s ShockWatch RFID tags, goes a long way towards preventing shipping damage.

 

Benefits:

• Acts as a visual deterrent to mishandling
• Expands the utility of RFID with damage monitoring
• Reduces receiving times and isolates items that need inspection
• Reduces mishandling through awareness
• Helps identify trouble spots in the supply chain from production to transportation to storage

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